KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Fariba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, has launched a campaign urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to exclude Afghanistan from the upcoming Paris Games due to the Taliban’s human rights violations.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, April 15, the former judoka, who participated in the 2004 Olympic Games, emphasized that while Afghanistan under Taliban control should be excluded from the upcoming games, Afghan women should still have the chance to compete as members of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.
“Given tons and tons of evidence about the Taliban, about their brutal treatment of women and children, they are very dangerous,” she said. “If the IOC allows them to enter the Olympics at the heart of Europe, in Paris in 2024, it’s very dangerous for the people,” she added.
The human rights situation in Afghanistan has significantly deteriorated since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. The regime has systematically violated the rights of women and girls in various aspects, including education, employment, sports, and freedom of movement.
Since then, several rights groups and experts have voiced concerns that the draconian treatment of women and girls by the Taliban amounts to “gender apartheid” as their rights have been gravely curtailed.
The Taliban authorities, however, argue that their policies and practices are rooted in Islamic Sharia law and Afghan traditions, claiming that human rights and equality are Western concepts that clash with Islamic principles.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) in 1999, resulting in the country’s exclusion from the 2000 Sydney Games. Afghanistan was readmitted following the collapse of the Taliban government in 2001.
In December 2022, the IOC warned that it could again stop working with Afghanistan if women are not allowed to play sports in the country.
The Committee emphasized that its support for Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) will depend on conditions, including women being allowed to play sports with “safe and inclusive access” and to take part in sports administration.
Ms. Rezayee, who now lives and works in Canada, said that she had believed that her historic achievement in 2024 would advance the rights of women and girls in her country.
“When I returned from Athens, [aged 18] I stayed in Afghanistan and I wanted to stay in Afghanistan. I continued my training because I saw the important changes it was making in every single girl’s life,” she said.
“It feels like whatever I did to support women’s rights and gender equality back in 2004, it has been all undone by the IOC and by the Taliban and people who tolerate the Taliban,” she added.
This is not the first time Ms. Rezayee has advocated for a ban against Afghanistan. Last year, she told the magazine Play the Game: “It’s very simple. Ban the Taliban-run Afghanistan for violating the Olympic Charter like the IOC did in the 1990s. There is precedent. And it’s the same Taliban.”
“What is the mystery behind the negotiations between the IOC and the Taliban?” she said. “Why are the Taliban not banned from the Olympic movement for violating Afghan sportswomen’s human rights? Why are the IOC negotiating with a group of terrorists?”
Reuters attempted to reach out to the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, for comment; however, he declined to provide any response.
Meanwhile, an IOC official previously stated that the committee was in dialogue with Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) and sport authorities “with the aim to reverse the current restrictions on access to sport for women and young girls in Afghanistan.”
James Macleod, the Director of National Olympic Committee Relations and Olympic Solidarity, said that although the IOC acknowledged different views on whether Afghanistan’s NOC should be suspended, it “doesn’t believe that isolation of the Afghan sporting community at this time is the right approach.”
