Women Afghan athletes differ on whether Olympic ban will help their cause

There have been times in the history of sports where loud calls for boycotting certain countries have rung throughout the land.

South Africa and Russia are some of the most prominent examples of country's whose apartheid policies or state-sponsored doping programs stood in contravention of the Olympic charter. Most recently, there have been calls to ban Israel from the Paris Olympics this summer because of the conflict in Gaza.

But one lesser-known call for a country's ban is coming from some Afghan women who want the Taliban-regime governed country to be banned from the Games. 

Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the thriving sports communities for women and girls have been decimated and a ban on female participation in sport has been imposed. Prior to the Taliban enacting its version of Sharia Law, women and girls were coaches, officials and leaders in the sports ecosystem.

I remember hearing about and falling in love with Skateistan,an incredible organization that was founded by my friend, Oliver Percovich, to use skateboarding to encourage young girls prior to the Taliban takeover. It even inspired various films and documentaries on the successful culture of sport and empowerment of Afghan girls. 

This deplorable forced separation of sports and women has not killed the dreams of competing nor yearning for justice from Afghan women all over the world. There are calls to ban Afghanistan as an official Olympic nation, but let women athletes from there compete with the Refugee Olympics team (ROT) as some did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Friba Rezayee was one of the first two women to represent Afghanistan at an Olympics (sprinter Robina Muqimyar was the other) when she competed in judo at the Athens Olympics in