Ahead of the next board meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a leading human rights organization is asking that Afghanistan be suspended from participating in international sports competitions. The IOC board meets on Tuesday, December 6. Human Rights Watch (HRW) wants the ban to last until women and girls are again allowed to play sports in Afghanistan.
The Taliban ban on women playing sports “is a violation of international human rights law, and also of the Olympic Charter, which mandates non-discrimination in sport,” HRW notes.
“Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, thousands of women and girls have been denied the right to play sport, and the education opportunities, scholarships, and right to achieve the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health participating in sport brings,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “The IOC should not take a day longer to remove the Taliban from the Olympic movement, strip their status, and halt the funding the IOC provides.” HRW notes that hundreds of female athletes have fled the country rather than give up their favorite sports while those that remain in Afghanistan are unable to train or play safely.
There is precedence for stripping Afghanistan of its right to play on the world stage. As HRW notes, the IOC suspended Afghanistan’s national Olympic committee from 1999 until 2003 “on grounds that the Taliban was barring women from competing in sports.”
