The olympics should stand with Afghanistan’s women athletes

By Friba Rezayee

NEW YORK: When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, one of its first actions was to bar women and girls from participating in sports publicly. It came as no surprise to me, one of Afghanistan’s first two female Olympians.

As a judo practitioner, I too have been forbidden to compete in my country. My life has been threatened by religious extremists and those who believe the country should adhere to strict Shariah law. Female athletes in Afghanistan today face similar threats from the Taliban, including physical abuse and raids on their homes.

What has been more surprising is the sports world’s lack of support for the brave women and girls who, unlike me, have not been able to flee the country. The most recent example is the International Olympic Committee’s decision to allow a team representing Afghanistan in the Paris Games. Instead, the committee, with the Games just days away, should reverse course and bar the team from competing on behalf of Afghanistan. It should let the athletes — most of whom live in exile — compete on the Refugee Olympic Team, which would send a message of hope to refugees around the world.

The Afghan team is made up of three women and three men, which the I.O.C. said meets its gender equality requirement in this case. But none of the three women representing Afghanistan — in athletics and cycling — live and train in the country, nor could they visit without risking their lives. Two of the three male athletes, a sprinter and a swimmer, are also joining from exile. The third, a judoka like me, trains in Afghanistan. By allowing them to compete for Afghanistan, the I.O.C. is not only undermining its own commitment to Olympic values but also lending legitimacy to the Taliban’s unrecognized regime.

For its part, the I.O.C. said it had dealt with an Afghan national Olympic committee that operates in exile and that no Taliban officials will be allowed to attend the games. But that is beside the point. Its decision to allow a team from Afghanistan to compete is an act of recognition — although perhaps unintentional — of a regime that punishes women for participating in sports. The Olympic Charter states in its opening:

“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have access to the practice of sport, without discrimination of any kind.” The I.O.C.’s role, the charter further states, is “to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic movement.”

There is a precedent for barring an Afghan team. The I.O.C. did so ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympics on the basis of the Taliban’s discrimination against women. This ban was reversed after the Taliban fell in 2001, paving the way for my own appearance at the 2004 Athens Olympics. What followed was more than 15 years of slow, painstaking progress toward greater gender equality in Afghanistan. It did not come easily; it did not come without grave risks for the pioneering women who pushed for such progress. But it did come, until it was snatched away again in August 2021.

Since then, the Taliban has issued over 80 decrees targeting women and girls. Women can no longer obtain driver’s licenses, nor can they travel more than 45 miles without a male guardian. Girls are banned from attending school past sixth grade. Women are no longer allowed to work at nongovernmental organizations or the United Nations. Afghan women “are putting their lives on the line” to oppose Taliban abuses, an official at Human Rights Watch wrote this year. “They deserve the international community’s full solidarity in their struggle.” I couldn’t agree more. One way to show solidarity is by refusing to offer the Taliban any impression of legitimacy.

To be clear, I respect and admire the hard work and dedication of the three female athletes in exile (and the men) who plan to walk in the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics. I believe they have every right to be there, but as refugees, not as representatives of a country where women are barred from sports.

As it stands now, they will compete for a country where stadiums are better known for public executions than athletic competitions. These women deserve a place on the global stage as the world tunes in to watch the Games. However, their presence should be a reminder of the cruel, unjust nature of the Taliban regime; it should not help pave the path to its legitimacy or serve as window-dressing to distract from the Taliban’s brutality toward women.