King Charles Meets Exiled Afghan Women’s Cricket Team After Taliban Imposed Sports Restrictions

King Charles III welcomed members of Afghanistan’s women’s cricket team to Clarence House on Wednesday, meeting players who fled their homeland after the Taliban returned to power and imposed sweeping restrictions on women and girls.

“DUBAI: King Charles on Wednesday met the Afghan women’s cricket team at Clarence House in London as a sign of support for the players who officially are no longer allowed to represent their country due to a ban by the Taliban regime, several British media outlets reported”

Arab News

The team, established in 2010 during the former Afghan Republic, lost official recognition after the Taliban takeover in 2021 and is now in exile because the Taliban have barred women and girls from participating in sports.

Arab News

Richard Lindsay, the United Kingdom’s special envoy for Afghanistan, described the meeting as “an absolute honour” and praised the players’ resilience in a statement.

The BBC reported that Charles told the cricketers, “I'm so glad that you can pursue what you want to do,” as the team arrived to play exhibition matches while the women’s T20 World Cup is hosted this summer in England.

The Independent said the exiled team visited King Charles as part of their campaign for official international recognition and to urge the International Cricket Council (ICC) to sanction the Taliban.

During the visit, the team met King Charles, Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer, and the UK’s special envoy to Afghanistan, pressing for the ICC to impose sanctions on the Taliban for their oppressive ban on women’s sport.

BBC

BBC coverage said cricketer Ekil Latifi, who has not seen her family in Afghanistan for five years, told the King the team was representing “all the women not allowed to play sport.”

Latifi also said the team’s survival and the royal meeting were a chance to speak up for women in Afghanistan and to show "all the things that they can't do there", while Shabnam Snahsan called it “so disappointing” that the team could not take part in this summer's World Cup.

The BBC reported that the Taliban block on women's sport meant Afghanistan's national cricket team for women was no longer allowed to take part in official competitions as representatives of the country.

“Afghan women cricketers forced to flee by the Taliban meet King Charles - Afghanistan’s exiled women’s cricket team visited King Charles at Clarence House as part of their campaign for official international recognition and to urge the International Cricket Council (ICC) to sanction the Taliban”

The Independent

It added that most of the team has now left Afghanistan, with the majority becoming refugees in Australia, while the players said they continue to play as a show of solidarity with all women in Afghanistan.

Arab News said the King met the team at Clarence House in London as a sign of support for players who officially are no longer allowed to represent their country due to a ban by the Taliban regime, and it described the players telling the King how they escaped so they could keep their ambitions alive.

In the Clarence House gardens, the BBC said the King was given a signed shirt by the team and posed for photographs, and Latifi said their bigger ambition is to be allowed to play again, as the men's team currently does, as part of the official cricketing world and under their own national flag.