Afghan diaspora divided over cricket boycott call

On 6 January 2025, a group of 160 cross-party UK Members of Parliament (MPs) signed a petition calling for the England cricket team to refuse to play Afghanistan, citing Taliban violations of women’s rights. Afghanistan is set to play Australia, England, and South Africa in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Champions Trophy, a quadrennial one-day tournament, on 21-28 February 2025.

The Taliban’s repression of women’s rights has extended to denying their participation in sports. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has, for example, disbanded the Afghan women’s cricket team since the Taliban took power, even though ICC member countries are required to support both women’s and men’s teams. Advocates for the boycott have accused the ICC and the ACB of disregarding their own rules by allowing Afghanistan to compete internationally.

Afghans divided on social media

Afghans appeared divided on social media regarding boycott calls, often along ethnic lines. Many, in particular non-Pashtuns, supported the decision, citing accusations that Afghan players helped “whitewash” the Taliban’s human rights record. Conversely, many Pashtun users criticised those favouring the boycott. This reflects a long-standing debate in Afghanistan over whether the national cricket team is too dominated by Pashtun players, to the exclusion of other ethnic groups.

Afghan human rights defender Er Sultani claimed the cricket team had not had an “actual” proud national achievement for all tribes in Afghanistan. He expressed support for the boycott due to the players’ alleged engagement with the Taliban. The anti-Taliban protest group Purple Saturdays Movement also supported the call for a boycott, labelling the team a legitimiser of the Taliban. Previously, Afghan cricket team members have been criticised multiple times for posing for photos and socialising with Taliban members (see below).

Prominent media personalities echoed these calls. On 20 January 2025, Sahra Karimi, former head of the state-run Afghan Film Organisation, wrote that she used to be proud of the team when it was not aligned with the Taliban, tacitly supporting the boycott. Lina Rozbih, journalist for Voice of America (VoA), said she opposed the cricket team due to the players legitimising the Taliban while failing to support women’s rights.

Others criticised how supporters of the cricket team had been silent about women’s rights under the Taliban. Afghan writer and journalist Abdullah Danish, for example, slammed anti-boycott protesters for not taking a stand against the Taliban bans on girls’ education.

On the opposing side, others strongly criticised boycott calls. Afghan journalist and human rights advocate Najeeb Nangyal on 9 January 2025 urged his X followers to publicly “name and shame” boycott supporters, warning that they will not be forgotten in case Afghan cricket fans or players “become extremists”.

Several UK-based Afghan media activists also appeared to be monitoring and responding to pro-boycott posts in a coordinated way. These included politicians, journalists and others – such as Diva Patang, Hameed Shuja, Jafar Haand, and Najeeb Nangyal – who were mentioned in multiple posts targeting boycott supporters. Sports presenter Bashir Gharwal, TV host Shabnam Dawran, human rights activist Zarifa Ghafari, and others have also posted supporting the team.

Journalist Diva Patang told a gathering of cricket supporters in London on 19 January 2025 (see below) that she would not allow cricket “heroes” to be besmirched by those “corrupted by foreign interests or national traitors”. Diva also targeted Human Rights Watch’s Heather Barr, comparing her to the Taliban for seeking to “ban sports”. Bashir Gharwal also targeted boycott supporters and promoted anti-boycott events. Jafar Haand, Gen Bakhtyar, Ghairat Baheer, and Qamar Jabarkhyl asked their followers to block the X account of Fawzia Kofi, a former MP and women’s rights activist who had reportedly supported the boycott. Qamar, in a post on X on 18 January 2025, called a critic of protests in London (see below) a “prostitute”.

ACB accused of whitewashing Taliban’s rights record

Many social media users also criticised the ACB for its ties to the Taliban. UK-based Afghan podcaster Roh Yakobi shared a video, originally published by the state-owned Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) on 9 August 2023, of the ACB and players meeting with the Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. According to Yakobi, the team captain Hashmatullah Shahidi told Muttaqi that the team would showcase the Taliban in a good light.

The ACB and the players have been accused of “sportswashing” the Taliban previously, including in August 2024 when several players were criticised for socialising with senior Taliban official Anas Haqqani.

Others criticised the ACB and players for remaining silent on women’s rights, and the disbanded women’s team in particular. Lina Rozbih of the VoA alleged that player Rashid Khan had said in a TV interview that “women were made for the kitchen.” AW, however, noted that Rashid Khan expressed disappointment with the closure of medical educational institutes for women in December 2024, expressing hopes it would be reversed.

Afghan UK diaspora: Anti-boycott protests in London

Dozens of UK-based Afghans attend gatherings in London on 16 and 19 January 2025 to voice opposition to the boycott. Speakers at a gathering in front of the UK Parliament on 16 January claimed that a boycott would not deter the Taliban from repressing women. Other protesters highlighted how players on the team supported Afghan women and girls. Diwa Khan, an Afghan woman protester, for example, told ABN Pashto news agency that Afghan cricketers have always supported women.

One protester carried a banner reading: “We want girls’ right to education, and we want cricket too.” Another banner said [Figure 2]: “Youth without cricket bats pick up what is left, guns or drugs!”

In another gathering in London on 19 January 2025, former Afghan MP Shukria Barakzai said that the Afghan cricket team symbolises the country’s national identity and should not be opposed. Meanwhile, several Afghan-British citizens dropped their Labour Party memberships because of boycott calls within the party.

Qamar Jabarkhyl, a UK-Afghan citizen and a supporter of the Afghan cricket team, claimed on 18 January 2025 that he received death threats from boycott supporters after one of his videos went viral. In the video, Qamar is holding an Afghan flag and chanting in support of the cricket team, while trying to hold back the civil rights activist Arezo Parsi. The man filming can be heard using an ethnic slur against Parsi.

Parsi on 19 January 2025 claimed she had been threatened by Afghan Pashtun political elites after speaking out in favour of the boycott. Pro-boycott user Kachkula on the same day demanded a UK police investigation into videos of threats and discrimination against Parsi. Similarly, Afghan women’s rights activist Marzieh Hamidi reported receiving rape and death threats for her remarks about the Afghan cricket team and its ties to the Taliban.

Qamar Jabarkhyl and Bashir Gharwal also repeatedly called for the suspension of Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi (who had organised the original petition), while discrediting the Labour Party, and accusing her of teaming up with “the wrong group of people”. Gharwal also launched a campaign to gather complaints against Antoniazzi.

Jafar Haand and others accused boycott supporters of forging a list of names sent to the UK Parliament supporting the boycott. AW noticed that these accusations soared after a human rights defender, Nazifa Jalali, withdrew from a pro-boycott petition, saying she had only consented to her name being used in support of Afghan women and girls.

Other global and diaspora reactions: Calls for collective action

Other international actors have echoed the calls by the UK parliamentarians. South Africa’s Sports Minister has supported a boycott of the Afghan team, while Australian CSOs and sports personalities have made similar calls. Australia previously withdrew from a one-day match against Afghanistan in 2023 and called off a T-20 series in 2024 over women’s rights under the Taliban. On 15 January 2025, Heather Barr from Human Rights Watch reposted the organisation’s January 2023 call urging the ICC to suspend Afghanistan’s membership.

Former Afghan Ambassador to the United Nations Mahmood Saikal on 10 January 2025 wrote that the cricket team, despite its achievements, has turned into a more ethnic team and a Taliban sympathiser. He claimed the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) unwillingness to go with the calls might be a safety measure, although without specifying how.

Exiled Afghan women cricket players were also critical of the ICC, accusing the organisation of neglecting the women’s team since the Taliban takeover, while ignoring its own rules by letting the men’s team play. On 10 January 2025, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai expressed support for the Afghan cricket team, but without mentioning the UK’s proposed boycott.

The Taliban has at the time of writing yet to comment officially on the boycott debate.