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Afghan women, including the country’s national women’s cricket team, will be banned from playing sports under the new Taliban government, according to an official with the Die-hard Islamist group.
In an interview with Australian broadcaster SBS, the deputy head of the Taliban Culture Commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said women’s sport was neither considered appropriate nor necessary.
“I don’t think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary for women to play cricket,” Wasiq said.
“In cricket, they may be faced with a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this.
“It’s the media age, and there will be photos and videos, and then people will look at them. Islam and the Islamic Emirate [Afghanistan] do not allow women to play cricket or participate in the kind of sport in which they are exposed.
A new Taliban interim government, drawn exclusively from loyalist ranks, officially began work on Wednesday, with established extremists in all key positions and no women – despite previous promises to form an inclusive administration.
The US State Department expressed concern that the new cabinet included only the Taliban, no women, and figures with troubling backgrounds, but said the new administration would be judged on its actions.
The carefully crafted statement noted that the cabinet was acting, but said the Taliban would be kept to their promise to give foreign nationals and Afghans safe passage, with proper travel documents, and to ensure the ground Afghan would not be used as a base to harm another state. .
“The world is watching closely,” the statement said.
The EU also condemned the new government for its lack of inclusion, saying it had failed to honor the new leaders’ wishes to include different groups.
“Based on the initial analysis of the names announced, this does not sound like the inclusive and representative formation in terms of Afghanistan’s rich ethnic and religious diversity that we were hoping to see and that the Taliban were promising in recent weeks,” said an EU spokesperson. .
Germany, China and Japan also gave the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan a lukewarm reception on Wednesday, following the flash storming of Kabul by Islamist militants last month.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas added that the composition encouraged little optimism about the Taliban change.
“The announcement of a transitional government without the participation of other groups and yesterday’s violence against protesters and journalists in Kabul are not signs of optimism,” he said. .
The issue of women’s rights is likely to dominate the way the regime is judged by the international community, with the stance on women’s sport and the all-male government being worrying warning signs.
While a political statement released to accompany the new cabinet’s announcement sought to allay the fears of Afghanistan’s neighbors and the rest of the world, women – unlike minorities – were not mentioned once in its three pages.
While Afghan cricket council officials say they have not been officially informed of the fate of women’s cricket, the council’s girls’ program has already been suspended.
Sportswomen, including female cricketers, have been in hiding in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power amid a precipitous US-led withdrawal of foreign forces last month, with some women reporting threats of violence from the share of Taliban fighters if caught playing.
The ban on playing sports comes amid mounting evidence that the Taliban’s attitude towards women has barely moderated since taking office, despite claims to the contrary.
As the Taliban have shifted from militant force to government power, they face opposition to their regime, with scattered protests – many with women in the foreground – erupting in cities across the country.
On Wednesday, a small rally in the capital, Kabul, was quickly dispersed by armed Taliban security, while Afghan media reported that a protest in the northeastern city of Faizabad was also disrupted.
Hundreds of people demonstrated on Tuesday, both in the capital and in the city of Herat, where two people were shot dead.
Notorious for their brutal and oppressive regime from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban had promised a more inclusive government this time around.
However, all leadership positions have been handed over to key leaders of the movement and the Haqqani network – the most violent faction of the Taliban, known for its devastating attacks.
Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund – a top minister during Taliban rule in the 1990s – has been appointed interim prime minister, the group’s chief spokesperson said at a press conference in Kabul.
Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of the founder and late supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has been appointed Minister of Defense, while the post of Minister of the Interior has been given to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the feared network Haqqani.
Co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar, who oversaw the signing of the U.S. withdrawal agreement in 2020, has been appointed deputy prime minister.
“We will try to take people from other parts of the country,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, adding that it was an interim government.
Hibatullah Akhundzada, the top secret leader of the Taliban, issued a statement saying the new government would “work hard to uphold Islamic rules and Sharia law.”
The Taliban had repeatedly pledged in recent days to rule more moderately than they did during their last term in power.
“The new Taliban is practically the same as the old Taliban”, tweeted Bill Roggio, editor of the US-based Long War Journal.
“It’s not at all inclusive, and it’s not at all a surprise,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
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