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Afghan women at the 2024 Olympics: responses and reactions
5 min read
Afghan Witness
On 13 June 2024, Reuters reported that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Afghanistan would be represented by a gender-equal team in the Paris Olympics, consisting of three women (Kimia Yousofi, Fariba Hashimi, and Yulduz Hashimi) as well as three men (Mohammad Samim Faizad, Fahim Anwari and Sha Mahmood Noor Zahi). This decision also included a ban on Taliban officials attending the games.
Additionally, the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, comprising 37 athletes, includes five Afghans: three women (Masomah Ali Zada, Nigarah Shaheen, and Manizha Talash) and two men (Amir Ansari and Farzad Mansouri). An Afghan athlete, Masomah Ali Zada, is leading the entire team. Notably, two female athletes from Afghanistan, Zakia Khodadadi and Masomah Ali Zada, carried this year’s Olympic torch in France.
Two of the Afghan Olympic cycling participants, sisters Yulduz and Fariba Hashimi, previously represented Afghanistan in the Tokyo Olympic Games, and reportedly fled Kabul after the Taliban took control in August 2021. Fariba Hashimi, quoted in a France 24 report published on 3 August 2024, stated, “I will try to do it for my people, to show that cycling is something nice that everyone can do, not just men but women as well.”
Kimia Yousofi, as reported by CNN on 5 August 2024, displayed a handwritten note in English on the back of her race bib, reading: “Education. Sport. Our Rights.” She expressed her determination by stating, “I am fighting for a land where the terrorists came. If they get into your house, you say, ‘OK, get out, this is my house.’ What should I feel? They took my land.”
The Taliban announced that they do not recognize the three female athletes selected for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, as they do not permit women’s sports. They also said that only one of the six Afghan athletes participating in the Olympics is living and training in Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, restrictions on women’s and girls’ sports have complicated Afghanistan’s participation in international athletics. In January 2023, Australia withdrew from a men’s cricket series against Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s rights, including in education, employment, and sports.
There has also been backlash in Afghanistan against the Taliban’s ban on women’s participation in sport, highlighting widespread disapproval and calls for action. In early March 2024, female Afghan rights activists in Afghanistan and Iran reportedly staged indoor protests in response to the Taliban’s ban. They condemned the Taliban’s actions and urged the international community to support Afghan women’s rights. Additionally, they called on Afghan male athletes to refrain from appeasing the Taliban.
On 20 March 2024, in a video message marking Nawruz (Spring New Year), a female Afghan athlete wearing a mask, highlighted the numerous challenges faced by Afghan female athletes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, including Taliban threats, economic hardships, and deprivation of rights. She urged the people of Afghanistan to support the establishment of a democratic government to alleviate the suffering of all Afghans.
Official Taliban response to Afghan women’s participation in the 2024 Olympic Games
On 8 July 2024, Atal Mashwani, the Taliban’s spokesman for the General Directorate of the National Olympic Committee and Sports, told AFP that only three male athletes, out of the six approved by the IOC, are recognised to represent Afghanistan. Atal stated, “currently, in Afghanistan girls’ sports have been stopped. When girls’ sport isn’t practised, how can they go on the national team?” As reported by France 24, the three athletes referred to as recognised by Atal exclude the three female athletes who were set to represent the country at the Paris Olympic Games.
On 30 June 2024, the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Taliban’s Olympic and Sports Department claimed in a post that Mohammad Samim Faizad is the “only Afghan athlete,” conducting his training for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris from Kabul. On 29 July 2024, the same account announced that Faizad would compete against his Austrian opponent, Wachid Borchashvili, in the 2024 Olympic Games the following afternoon. AW noted that no further comments about the 2024 Olympic Games were made on the Taliban’s Sports Department account or any other official Taliban accounts.
Social media reactions in support of Afghan women Olympic participants
On 9 July 2024, following the Taliban’s announcement that they would not recognize the female athletes representing Afghanistan in the Olympic Games, the UN Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, wrote on his X account:
"Afghan women & girls have the right to participate in sport. I call on sports bodies to support them, inside and outside Afghanistan. Looking forward to seeing inspiring and talented Afghan women and men compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris 2024."
On 26 July 2024, Jennifer Klein, Director of the White House Gender Policy Council, shared a photo on the council’s X account featuring the Afghan athletes selected for the 2024 Olympic Games. She stated, “the United States is committed to advancing gender equality, including in and through sport, and is proud to stand with the women and girls of Afghanistan.”
Also on 26 July 2024, Mahdi Rasikh, a former Shia member of the Afghan parliament, posted photos on his X account of female Afghan athletes bearing the Olympic torch. He wrote:
"Masoma Alizada and Zakia Khodadadi carried the torch of freedom, peace, and equality on behalf of Afghanistan's imprisoned women. This is the greatest achievement in the fight against barbarism, primitiveness, and violence against women in Afghanistan by the Taliban."
On 27 July 2024, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, living under the Taliban regime in Kabul, praised the bearing of the Olympics torch by Afghan female athletes in Paris. Karzai posted on X:
"It is a great pleasure and honour that the Afghanistan sports team, by attending the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, raised the flag of our dear country. Our heroic girls, with their great efforts, became the torchbearers of the Olympic Games despite living in exile!"
Other anti-Taliban figures including Daoud Naji, the political head of the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF), Afghan women’s rights activist Maryam Ataei, prominent female Afghan Journalist, Lina Rozbih, and political analyst Hasan Ali Adalat, praised the female athletes, and condemned the Taliban for their discrimination against women.
Social media reactions by pro-Taliban accounts
Prominent pro-Taliban propagandists remained silent about the participation of female Afghan athletes in the Olympic Games. However, some pro-Taliban accounts with a relatively low number of followers reacted to X posts about Afghan women’s participation in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and the Taliban’s refusal to recognise their representation of Afghanistan.
A pro-Taliban account with over 2,000 followers criticised the IOC’s decision to ban Taliban officials from participating in the 2024 Olympics, stating, “Taking political advantage of the Olympics is considered a crime under the Games Act.”
Other pro-Taliban accounts with only a few hundred followers condemned Afghan women’s participation in the Olympic Games, calling it a shame and asserting that they would not allow women to compete, preferring to send only men as athletes.