From swimming to football, horse racing, Afghanistan’s new sports chief said on Tuesday that the Taliban will allow 400 sports, but did not want to confirm whether women can play one. “Please don’t ask any more questions about women,” Bashir Ahmad Rustamzai told AFP, from an armchair where he had sat as chairman of the Afghanistan Olympic Committee until he fled the country last month. Rustamzai, a former kung fu and wrestling champion with a thick black-and-white beard, was appointed by the hardline Islamist group as Afghanistan’s director general of sports and physical education.
Once he was the head of the wrestling federation when the Taliban last ruled, Rustamzai then worked with the Western-backed government, before falling with them because of “widespread corruption,” he said. .
“We will not ban any sport”
Dressed in a black turban typical of the Taliban, Rustamzai asked repeated questions about the issue of women’s sport.
During the brutal and oppressive regime of extremists, from 1996 to 2001, women were completely forbidden to practice any sport while strictly controlling men’s sport. Women were also largely banned from education and work.
Sports stadiums were regularly used for public performances.
“We will not ban any sport unless it complies with sharia law … there are 400 types of sports allowed,” Rustamzai said.
Shortly afterwards, he saw a demonstration of young Afghans, some zooming in on paddles and waving the Taliban’s white flag.
Rustamzai said compliance with Islamic law meant few changes in practice compared to other countries.
“It doesn’t change much,” he said, noting that it would require, for example, football players or Muay Thai boxers to wear “slightly longer shorts that fall below the knee.”
Driven by women’s participation, he said he was still waiting for the decrees of the top Taliban leadership.
“We can imagine the same thing as in universities: allowing women to play sports, but separately from men,” said one of her advisers.
But Rustamzai would not confirm it directly.
The new rules on universities allow women to continue studying as long as they are strictly segregated from men and adhere to an abaya dress code and a niqab facial veil. The curriculum will also be monitored.
Separate sport?
At the moment, the indications seem bleak to women.
Last week, the deputy director of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said “it was not necessary” for women to play sports.
“On the grill, they could face a situation where their face and body will not be covered,” Wasiq told Australian broadcaster SBS. “Islam does not allow women to be seen that way.”
But the Taliban are already under pressure, especially for cricket, where international law states that nations must also have an active women’s team to participate in test matches.
Azizullah Fazli, chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), later told SBS Radio Pashto that he still hoped women could play.
“Very soon, we will give you good news on how we will proceed,” he said.
But Rustamzai distanced herself from the future of women’s sport.
Promoted
“The opinions of our elders (senior Taliban) are important,” he said. “If they ask us to authorize women, we will, otherwise we won’t. We look forward to your announcement.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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