For the attention of the England Cricket Board,

We are writing as a feminist charity that works to amplify the voices of women via a number of projects, including our international conferences. We have followed the situation in Afghanistan for several years and are deeply concerned about the escalating restrictions on the freedoms and rights of women and girls. 

We urge the England Cricket Board to withdraw the England team from the forthcoming match against Afghanistan on 26th February, which is scheduled as part of the International Cricket Council Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 tournament. To go ahead with this match, while the Afghanistan government further restricts women’s rights and the ability to have any social existence, implies that the Board and the team are unconcerned about the denial of the most basic human rights for female people. 

Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, women have been denied education beyond primary school, through a series of steps which now even includes the ending of midwifery training for women. Women are forbidden to work apart from, currently, the existing nurses and midwives. 

Women are banned from parks, gyms, swimming pools and public baths. Hair and beauty salons, one of the only places where women could meet, have been closed down. Women must wear full-length clothing outside the home, with their faces covered. Women’s voices must not be heard praying, even by other women, and no singing is permitted. 

It has now been announced that there must be no possibility of women being seen by men in courtyards, kitchens, or at a well, and therefore no windows in new buildings should look out over such areas, and where such windows currently exist they must be blocked.

We cannot believe that the England Cricket Board regards such extreme restrictions on women as reasonable, and to go ahead with the match would be understood as validation of the Afghanistan regime and its extreme restrictions on women’s lives. The Afghanistan women’s cricket team, formed in late 2020, fled Afghanistan in fear of their lives in 2021 when the Taliban regained control. To support these brave women, the England men’s team must refuse to play the only team that now represents the country. 

We are writing also to the International Cricket Council, in the hope that they will cancel Afghanistan’s participation in the tournament. However, whether or not this happens, we hope the England Cricket Team will signal the UK’s abhorrence of the appalling treatment of women in that country and withdraw from the match. 

As our 10th conference comes around, we hope that the situation in Afghanistan improves for women and girls, and we hope that we can stand in front of the 3,000 participants celebrating the contribution of the England Cricket Board toward that aim. 

Yours faithfully, 

Lisa-Marie Taylor
FiLiA CEO, on behalf of the FiLiA Trustee Board
www.filia.org.uk

For the attention of the International Cricket Council,

We are writing as a feminist charity that works to amplify the voices of women via a number of projects, including our international conferences. We have followed the situation in Afghanistan for several years and are deeply concerned about the escalating restrictions on the freedoms and rights of women and girls.

We write in the hope that the ICC will recognise, in light of the ongoing extension of restrictions on women in Afghanistan, that validation of the regime through the participation of their cricket team in the International Cricket Council Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 tournament is utterly inappropriate. We recognise that re-organisation of the tournament that is due to begin in less than two months will be difficult, but we feel, nonetheless, that just as a sports boycott against apartheid South Africa was understood as crucial in countering the extreme racist policies of South Africa at that time, so is the boycott of the most anti-women regime in the world today. 

The ICC announced, in November 2024, the women’s Future Tours Programme for 2025-29, demonstrating a welcome support for women’s cricket. The ICC will be aware that the entire Afghanistan women’s cricket team, formed just nine months before the Taliban regained control of the country in 2021, were forced to flee, knowing their lives were at risk. The ICC must be aware that the women are urging the ICC to recognise them as a refugee team. 

The ICC’s own rules state that members must have a funded women’s cricket programme, which Afghanistan clearly does not. The most positive and supportive action the ICC can take in this situation is to cease to work with the Afghanistan men’s team. 

As our 10th conference comes around, we hope that the situation in Afghanistan improves for women and girls, and we hope that we can stand in front of the 3,000 participants celebrating the contribution of the International Cricket Council toward that aim. 

Yours faithfully 

Lisa-Marie Taylor
FiLiA CEO, on behalf of the FiLiA Trustee Board
www.filia.org.uk