By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
December 6, 2022
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned on December 6 that it could stop working with Afghanistan if women are not allowed to play sports under Taliban rule.
The IOC said its support for Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) will depend on conditions, including women being allowed to play sports with “safe and inclusive access” and to take part in sports administration.
Afghan teams for international events must include female athletes who live in the country, not just those based abroad, the IOC said.
The warning came a day after Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the IOC to suspend Afghanistan from taking part in sports events immediately and to halt its funding. HRW said the ban should continue until women and girls are allowed to play sports in the country.
Forbidding women and girls from playing sports was one of the many restrictions imposed by the Taliban after its return to power in August 2021. HRW said that this is a violation of international human rights law and of the Olympic Charter, which mandates nondiscrimination in sport.
“Hundreds of female athletes have chosen to flee the country rather than give up the sports they love, and that are their jobs,” HRW said in its statement.
The IOC decision was announced after an executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. The board said it “expressed its serious concern and strongly condemned the latest restrictions imposed by the Afghan authorities on women and young girls in Afghanistan, which prevent them from practicing sport in the country.”
It was not immediately clear how soon the IOC might implement the measures, but the board said Afghanistan’s participation in the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024 “will depend on the progress made in relation to the fundamental issue of safe access to sport for women and young girls in the country.”
The IOC said it will continue direct support for individual athletes from Afghanistan who aim to compete at the Olympics.
The Taliban-led government’s Department of Physical Training and Sports did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment.
With reporting by AP
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