Islamabad (AFP)

In 2014, the Afghan women's cricket team was disbanded, due in part to threats from the Taliban.

Seven years and a renaissance later, the hopes of the players, who could be deprived of sport in the name of Islam, are again "dashed", regrets Tuba Sangar.

"Still shocked" by the return of the fundamentalists, whose first reign (1996-2001) was marked by their brutality against women, the former director in charge of the women's section of Afghan cricket recounts the years 2014- 2020, when the international community pushed for ever more inclusion in sport.

In a country that discovered cricket late, but where it quickly rose to the number one sport and is now a national pride, the promotion of a women's cricket team was an opportunity not to be missed.

In 2010, a women's cricket team was therefore created ... only to be dissolved four years later due to an unfavorable security context.

Years of work in the shadows followed, led in particular by Tuba Sangar, before finally at the end of 2020, contracts were awarded to 25 players, the first step towards a return to the stage and international matches.

"From 2014 to today, we did not have the opportunity to play at an international level, but there was hope, everyone was doing their best to achieve it", emphasizes to the AFP Tuba Sangar, from Canada where she is a refugee.

- "Islam does not allow" -

Afghan women play cricket on March 9, 2014 in a school in Hérat Aref Karimi AFP / Archives

The prospect had a tasty taste of victory for Afghan women, who have struggled daily for more than twenty years to regain their place in the public space and their rights violated at the end of the 1990s.

But "when the Taliban arrived, they dashed hopes. Everyone fears for their lives," adds Tuba Sangar.

Just weeks after taking power on August 15, the Taliban hinted that women would not be allowed to play sports under the new regime if they were to be exposed to the public eye.

"Islam does not allow women to be seen like this," Ahmadullah Wasiq, a Taliban official, told Australian outlet SBS News.

While no official decision has yet been taken, these statements have reinforced the fears of part of the Afghan population and the international community about a return to strict application of the Sharia law in force under the first Taliban government.

Entertainment, sporting or otherwise, was then prohibited.

Some sports were allowed, but they were strictly controlled: only men could play or attend matches.

Such a step backwards promises to be catastrophic, believes Tuba Sangar.

"There are some very talented girls who were hoping to play international cricket," to "show the world that Afghan women can play cricket."

Cricketers celebrating after a match at a school in Herat, Afghanistan on September 2, 2013 Aref Karimi AFP / Archives

- 'Lost everything' -

"We continue to hope that one day we will get there but for the time being there is no hope. We have lost everything," she adds.

Questioned at the end of August by the BBC, several members of the Afghan women's cricket team had confided, under assumed names, to fear for their lives and to be "desperate".

One of them explained in particular that she "felt a strong woman", confident and proud of herself when she played cricket, a sport which allowed her to imagine herself "as a woman who can do anything, who can do anything. realize his dreams".

Facing the new Taliban regime, Australia has increased the pressure in recent days by threatening to cancel the first historic men's match between the two countries, scheduled for Hobart in November.

But for Tuba Sangar, "it is not a good idea to boycott the men's team", which "has done a lot for the country" by presenting it in a positive light, and above all which "gives a little hope" to Afghans now.

Over the past twenty years, the men's national team has experienced a meteoric rise, reaching the top ten in the world for one-day matches and in the Twenty20 format.

"If Australia" and other countries want to support the Afghan women players ", they should rather according to Tuba Sangar" give the opportunity to some to stay on their soil for a few years and let them practice playing for Afghanistan since a third country. "

© 2021 AFP