Tooba Khan Sarwari had two key dreams in life: working in law, and pursuing professional cricket. The Taliban stole both of them from her upon their return to power in 2021.
But the talented athlete and her teammates on the Afghan National Women’s Cricket Team have reclaimed their shared sporting dream, set to debut in an exhibition match in Melbourne on January 30, as part of the Women’s Ashes Test between Australia and England.
The Taliban government has not validated the women’s participation in sports under the official Afghan flag, as required by the International Cricket Council, but Sarwari said that her team’s debut under the banner of “Afghanistan Women’s XI” still symbolizes a triumph for Afghan women.
“It’s a dream for all of our teammates,” Sarwari told The Diplomat.
“It will be a big opportunity for us to show our capability to the world and say, ‘Yeah, we are here. We have our rights. We have this capability to represent our country, to play cricket.’
“And to the Afghan women in Afghanistan it will say that ‘We are representing you. We are with you, and never give up’.”
Sarwari, an all-rounder who specializes in medium-fast bowling, cannot contain her excitement as the unlikely dream of taking the pitch has materialized.
“Every night, before I go to sleep, I just dream that I will take three wickets. I’ll get a hat-trick and I will make 50 runs,” Sarwari said.
“Every day I have practiced from six o’clock until nine o’clock… and I told my teammates, ‘we need to focus more, we need to improve our batting skills, our bowling skills’.”
Almost five years after signing professional contracts and completing their first training camps together, the exiled team will finally get the chance to showcase their skills against the “Cricket Without Borders” charity team.
While a win would be preferable, beneath Sarwari and her teammates’ fierce competitiveness is a simple hope: that their appearance on the pitch will reignite global diplomatic efforts to restore women’s rights in Afghanistan.
“I know losing, or winning, it’s part of the game,” Sarwari said.
“But it’s important for us that [it’s the] first time the Afghan women cricketers are going into the international field… It is a powerful message for Afghan women in Afghanistan, for us to open the doors for the next generation.
“Maybe it’s not [going to properly] happen for us, but we hope it’s happening for the next generation. We [will] try our best [to enable that].”
Photo courtesy of Tooba Khan Sarwari.
Cricket has become an unlikely means through which human rights advocates are hoping to pressure the Taliban regime to reverse the erasure of women’s rights to work, education, and participation in public life. It is now the country’s most popular sport, and the Taliban’s removal of the Afghanistan Cricket Board’s chief executive just weeks after seizing power suggests that they understand its soft power potential, but want to tightly constrain it within party lines.
The Afghanistan men’s team’s heroic run to the semifinal of the 2023 Cricket World Cup captured the imagination of the sporting world, but many have questioned whether the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its member nations are complicit in “sportswashing” by allowing them to compete while serious abuses against women’s rights continue.
The Afghan women’s cricket team, meanwhile, sent an official letter to the ICC Chair, Greg Barclay, pleading for their support in creating a refugee team, but they have not received a response.
The Taliban’s unilateral promotion of male sporting teams, including a social media campaign broadcasting meet and greets with the Afghan men’s cricket team, has emerged as a signal of their willingness to move incrementally toward some level of global participation.
But its effectiveness as a soft power vector has diminished significantly as the stories of women like Sarwari emerged, whose dreams and identities went up in flames upon the Taliban’s return to power.
“I burned my cricket gear… I burned all of my documents… lots of certificates… I was scared for my life and my family’s lives,” Sarwari said, recounting the moments following news of the Taliban’s re-seizure of Kabul in August 2021.
Melbourne soon after beckoned as a safe harbor, as humanitarian visas were issued to the women’s team thanks to extensive evacuation efforts led by an academic and lawyer, Dr. Catherine Ordway, with the support of the Australian government and cricket officials.
Nonetheless, the transition was difficult for Sarwari, who noted she had to leave most of her family behind. If not for the Taliban regime’s reactionary policies eliminating decades of economic and social progress, Sarwari said, she would have loved to continue living in Herat, an under-recognized gem of Central Asia upon which the Taliban have cast an opaque shadow.
“Herat province, it has lots of historical places, like the Great Mosque… and everything about Afghanistan: the mountains, the forests, the water,” she said.
“Afghanistan is a perfect country in the world… without [the] Taliban.”
Now settled in the Australian capital, Canberra, Sarwari studies international relations at the University of Canberra and coaches cricket at a local high school alongside her own training: all opportunities that are currently out of reach for her female friends and family still living in Afghanistan.
Since August 2021, the Taliban have issued at least 70 decrees progressively eliminating women’s autonomy. By April 2023, 80 percent of school-aged girls were no longer attending school, while their presence in the workforce continues to plummet.
Furthermore, restrictions on their ability to travel without a male companion and recent recent bans preventing Afghan women from completing medical training are not only increasing isolation, but fundamentally putting their health and wellbeing at risk.
“We know it’s [a] very hard situation in Afghanistan… how difficult it is for them to stay just at home, without doing anything,” Sarwari said.
“Even they don’t have access to the public park. My mom, she is sick, and the doctor say[s] she need[s] to walk every day, and when she want[s] to enter in the park, they say, ‘no, you can’t.’ It’s very disappointing.”
Ordway, an instrumental figure in Sarwari’s resettlement, secured the safe evacuation of 22 out of the 25 team members, with another two athletes settling in Canada and one in the United Kingdom. She has seen firsthand that the plight of the friends and family left behind is never far from these athletes’ minds.
“I had so many messages from people and the girls had lots of messages from their friends and teammates and so on … [that] said, ‘why aren’t I included? Can’t you include me? I need to escape, my situation is desperate and … I’m in danger.’
“That was horrendous. I think the girls are still suffering enormously from having to say to people that they love and care about, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re not on the list and you can’t come,'” Sarwari said.
For a long time,” she added, “they didn’t want to talk about it publicly because they were fearful of retribution back home for any family members left behind, and for other girls that were left behind who were cricketers.”
Photo courtesy of Tooba Khan Sarwari.
For Ordway, the ICC could be doing much more to send a message to the Taliban, but she also noted that sport should not be seen as the primary point of leverage for addressing the Taliban’s broader human rights abuses.
“Why is it down to the athletes and down to sport, and in this case, down to one sport, to do something about Afghanistan? I think it’s putting a lot on sport that is quite unfair,” she said.
At a press conference on January 27, Australian Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts described the Afghan women cricketers as “a powerful symbol of courage and resilience in the face of extraordinary adversity.”
“From the Australian government’s perspective,” he added, “we will not allow the current situation in Afghanistan to become the new normal. We’ll continue to speak out in favor of the human rights of women and girls.”
A total of AU$174 million ($108 million) in humanitarian development assistance has been provided to Afghanistan during the current Australian government’s term, though Watts did not indicate whether this economic lever would be invoked in future negotiations with the Taliban regime.
Although the Taliban seem unwilling to compromise on any policies relating to women’s rights, Sarwari said that ongoing support from high profile figures and the global community at large is vital, for most Afghan citizens are not in a safe position to advocate for themselves, nor openly celebrate the achievements of the Afghan diaspora.
“If they say anything, if they want to support us, the Taliban will kill us,” Sarwari said.
Despite this, Sarwari said that she will never lose hope, and encourages the world to signal the same via their support for her and other Afghan women’s breakthrough initiatives.
“Raise your voice for the Afghan women’s team… because nothing is impossible,” Sarwari said.