Bready Cricket Club in Co. Derry is braced for protests this week as Afghanistan's men's team arrives to play Ireland in a five-match series starting Wednesday. Human rights campaigners have called for a boycott of the games, while others are urging spectators to wear pink to show support for women in Taliban-run Afghanistan.
Former internationals have called for Ireland to stop playing Afghanistan altogether, saying women in the country are treated as second-class citizens and are banned from playing any sport.
ICC membership rules require a representative women's team, but the global governing body has not enforced this against Afghanistan. Twenty Afghan women cricketers who found sanctuary in Australia are lobbying to be recognised and allowed to play internationals, while thousands of other Afghan women players remain in the country, barred from their sport and living under laws that permit wife beating and deny women access to second and third level education, healthcare and work outside the home.
Calls for Ireland to follow England and Australia
England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould wrote to the ICC last year calling for unified action, describing the situation as "the worst violation of women's rights anywhere on earth." England and Australia both refuse to play Afghanistan unless drawn against them in ICC tournaments.
Cricket Ireland chief executive Sarah Keane said in March that she felt "moral discomfort" over the decision to invite Afghanistan, a decision made before she took over. She said "if we don't [play] the issue kind of goes away." Last month Keane was appointed to the ICC's special taskforce for the Afghan women's refugee team, which hopes to take part in official qualifying events by 2030. Cricket Ireland has said it would use the series to highlight the issues facing Afghan women and girls, but on the eve of the matches nothing had yet taken place.
Former Ireland international Janice Walsh, who won 15 caps between 1987 and 1993, called yesterday for the series to be cancelled. "Australia and England refuse to play Afghanistan, and its about time Ireland stood up and refused to play them too," she said. "We all sit around and complain about their appalling treatment of their women's cricket team, and women in general, but it's time we did something about it. Ireland needs to stand up and be counted."
Women's cricket banned since 2021
The Taliban's return to power in 2021 shut down all women's sport in Afghanistan, including cricket, which had previously grown popular. At the time, government official Ahmadullah Wasiq said: "I don't think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary that women should play cricket. In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this. It is the media era, and there will be photos and videos, and then people watch it. Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed."
The series runs across five matches, with games in Bready tomorrow and Friday and three more at Stormont next week. In an interview with the BBC this week, the Women's Resource & Development Agency, a Belfast organisation whose mission statement calls for "a fair and equal society where women are empowered and are a visible force for change and influence in all areas of life," questioned whether the matches should go ahead. "The state of human rights in Afghanistan, and especially the absence of the most fundamental rights of women, should be on everyone's mind as the men's team take on Afghanistan's men's team in cricket," the organisation said. "There are legitimate questions as to whether Cricket Ireland should allow such an opportunity to a team which represents a state in which women are second class citizens at best."
Amnesty report on marriage law
In June, an Amnesty International report revealed that Afghanistan's new Code on Judicial Separation of Spouses removes any requirement for women's consent to marriage, grants male relatives control over marital arrangements, and reduces avenues to escape abusive unions. The code also effectively reduces the age of consent to as young as eight or nine in some cases. "The code introduces deeply problematic standards of consent to marriage, including interpreting a girl's silence after puberty as agreement to marriage. Such standards create an increased risk of coercion and intimidation," Amnesty reported.
Security plans in place
Afghanistan last played in Ireland in 2022, when there were no protests, though two visiting fans were removed after a pitch invasion at Stormont. Cricket Ireland said in a statement that "appropriate security measures are in place, and all necessary arrangements have been made to ensure the safety and security of players, supporters, officials and staff." The PSNI told the BBC it does not comment on operational matters but that an "appropriate and proportionate policing plan" would be in place. The PSNI added that freedom of speech and peaceful assembly are protected rights, but that "if the Police Service identifies potential criminal offences, or unacceptable impact on the rights of others, we will take lawful and proportionate action."
