Human Rights Watch urges for the suspension of Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee

Human Rights Watch, the international non-governmental organization which is in charge of overseeing the human rights across the globe, has urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Afghanistan from participating in international sports at its Executive Board meeting held here as a result of limitations on women’s and girls’ involvement in Afghanistan. Following the most recent Executive Board meeting in September, IOC President Thomas Bach stated that the organization was “watching this very closely.” As a result, the status of the National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will be addressed as part of a report on National Olympic Committees.

Samira Asghari, an Afghan IOC member, said that since the Taliban took control back last year, the nation has become “like a prison” for female citizens. Under its version of Sharia law, the militant Islamist organization Taliban severely restricts the rights of women and girls. Women are prohibited from participating in sports and secondary education and are forced to conceal their faces when they are out in public and traveling with men. Since the Taliban’s resurgence, more than a million people are said to have left Afghanistan and numerous sports organizations, such as the FIFA, Australian Olympic Committee, and the International Cycling Union, have helped with efforts to evacuate athletes.

After the Taliban forbade women from participating in sports during their initial period of government rule, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Afghanistan was previously suspended from 1999 to 2003. In November of last year, Taliban officials assured the IOC that Afghan athletes and teams would be able to compete abroad. However, the country’s ongoing humanitarian crises have grown and the number of women participating in sports has been low. Due to the Taliban government’s prejudice against women and aversion to their participation in sports, the country was excluded from the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Judoka Friba Rezayee and sprinter Masoud Azizi were the first women on the team when they competed in Athens again in 2004.

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What the Director of Global Initiatives of the Human Rights Watch Said

Minky Worden, the Director of Global Initiatives of the Human Rights Watch stated that the IOC should take a stronger approach against the country. “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,” she told insidethegames. “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. The IOC always says ‘athletes are the heart of the Olympic Movement, but what about the women and girls of Afghanistan? They are athletes too, and have not been given meaningful assistance by the Olympic system,” she further added.