Afghan Women’s XI play for cricketing recognition in England

In 2021, as the Taliban closed in on Kabul and seized back power, members of Afghanistan women’s cricket team fled for their lives.

Five years on, the women are about to embark on a tour of England; part cricket series, part advocacy campaign.

Canberra-based player Benafsha Hashimi said the team was taking with them “one clear message” — to seek recognition.

“The [International Cricket Council] always said that women are equal to men. We have heard that a lot,” Hashimi said of the sport’s governing body.

The Afghanistan Women’s XI will play during, but not as part of, the T20 Women’s World Cup in June and July.

The Taliban-controlled Afghanistan Cricket Board refuses to acknowledge the women’s team, which in turn means the International Cricket Council (ICC) cannot sanction them to play in its tournaments.

Since its return to power, the Taliban have drastically restricted the employment, education and freedoms of women, something that has been labelled a “gender apartheid” by international human rights organisations.

Team manager Emma Staples said the tour had been “strategically” timed to coincide with the World Cup, as well as the ICC’s annual conference when crucial decisions about the team’s official recognition could be made.

“The ICC now have such a great opportunity to be courageous, put the politics aside and actually invest in and ignite these young women,” she said.

Canada-based player Roya Samim wants the ICC to seize that opportunity.

“This light could be for those girls [who] stayed in the dark back home in Afghanistan, those who don’t have hope.”

One option could be to establish a refugee side, similar to displaced or nationless athletes who compete under the flag of the International Olympic Committee.

“It’s how courageous the sport wants to be … because you can always find a solution,” Ms Staples said.

Playing for a level playing field

The Afghanistan women’s team played their first match together in January 2025, an exhibition match at Melbourne’s Junction Oval. 

The game attracted the governor-general of Australia to spectate, international coverage from the press and the admiration of the sporting world.

In the months that followed this inaugural fixture, the ICC announced an ‘Afghanistan women’s cricket initiative’ to provide monetary support to the players and fund a high-performance sporting program.

The initiative is run by a taskforce comprised of representatives from Cricket Australia, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), who work with the ICC to deliver the program.

The program also provides for “engagement opportunities” at ICC events, and the Afghanistan XI’s tour of England comes from this funding, as did a trip to the Women’s World Cup in India last year.

“We are proud to be hosting the team this summer and supporting the players in deepening their connection to the game.”

The Afghanistan XI will play at the picturesque Wormsley Cricket Ground in Buckinghamshire and at Cambridge University, hoping their visibility will remind the game’s powerbrokers of their plight.

‘Do it for the girls in Afghanistan’

As the women play in the sport’s birthplace, their future cricketing lives will be decided on.

Funding for the Afghanistan women’s cricket initiative will end in August, and what happens after that is set to be discussed by the taskforce at the ICC annual conference in July.

A spokesperson for Cricket Australia said it was “proud” of the role the organisation had played in the women’s plight, and that it would “continue to advocate at the ICC for the women to gain the best possible training and playing opportunities at an appropriate level”.

The ICC did not respond to a request for comment.

“We would love to see at least another three-to-five-year long-term investment in a program that also explores how we engage the Afghan diaspora globally,” Ms Staples said.

“Investing in that period while we work out an avenue to formal recognition by the ICC so [the women’s team is] eligible for world cups.”

In April this year, FIFA cleared the way for the Afghanistan women’s team return to international football. 

They too are a global sporting diaspora who fled Afghanistan when the Taliban returned. Many have settled in Australia and all have fought to be recognised.

The Afghanistan women’s cricket team now wants that same recognition from the ICC.

“If you don’t want to do that for us, can you just do that for some other girls who are living in Afghanistan?” Hashimi said.

‘You’re dying, you’re losing everything’

Campaigners as much as cricketers, this group of women has spoken out against the Taliban since they escaped the oppressive regime.

Samim has strong memories from the day she and her family fled.

“On the day that we had to leave Kabul, it was the day that were [supposed to] have a match,” she said.

“You’re dying, you’re losing everything.”

Some women burned or buried their cricket equipment as they left their homeland.

In June, players from around the world converged in Darwin for a development camp ahead of the England tour.

Samim was not selected for the tour, but her younger sister Najiba was named in the squad.

“I will not take permission to play cricket from the Taliban.”