Afghan women are being removed from Afghan society!

An interesting article in the Guardian this evening, about a TV station called Begum TV. It is broadcast from France, by Afgan women who are taking refuge there just now.

Thanks. I’ve signed and shared the petition

According to the Observer last week the Afghans love cricket and would be devastated if their national team were to be boycotted.

They are also working on attracting tourists to Afghanistan (no, I checked the date, it wasn’t 1st April). Who in their right minds would want to go as a tourist to Afghanistan? Women?

I don’t understand the deafening silence on this issue.

Nor me.

It's as if nobody wants to talk about it - people who object to being called "love" or referred to as "ladies"... this outrage, though?
Nope.

Where is the mainstream media reporting on this abomination? Where is the SM outrage? People like Gary Lineker (et al) who tweet constantly their outrage at various social injustices are remarkably silent on matters such as this. I suppose their ability to earn from sport overrules any conscientious objection as it did with Qatar having the football World Cup. Incomes first, principles way down the list.

MaizieD

According to the Observer last week the Afghans love cricket and would be devastated if their national team were to be boycotted.

They are also working on attracting tourists to Afghanistan (no, I checked the date, it wasn’t 1st April). Who in their right minds would want to go as a tourist to Afghanistan? Women?

I don’t understand the deafening silence on this issue.

According to the Observer last week the Afghans love cricket and would be devastated if their national team were to be boycotted. and this is exactly why they should be boycotted, with an explicit explanation that their treatment of women is abhorrent and totally unacceptable to the rest of the world.

Rosie51

Where is the mainstream media reporting on this abomination? Where is the SM outrage? People like Gary Lineker (et al) who tweet constantly their outrage at various social injustices are remarkably silent on matters such as this. I suppose their ability to earn from sport overrules any conscientious objection as it did with Qatar having the football World Cup. Incomes first, principles way down the list.

I don't buy newspapers but at a petrol station the other day (must have been Saturday) I did notice a headline referring to this matter and an article underneath with a photo of a cricketer.

I was in a bit of a rush so didn't notice the name of the paper or stop to buy a copy.

Of course the media know about it.

I am also going to write to my MP.

Stephanie Peacock is the Minister for Sport and Media, please email her if you have time.

Email your MP and the PM

Let your friends and family know about the petition.

Thank you.

Great idea Grannygravy!

When is this match going to be?

keepingquiet

Great idea Grannygravy!

When is this match going to be?

26th February in Lahore.

Oh come on! As with virtually all sport, MONEY is the most important factor here. People in high places will pay lip service to the plight of Afghan women, but give up the money that's to be generated by sport or anything else for something so trivial? Oh dear me NO! A million and one excuses, but money is King, hypocrisy is alive and extremely well.

I wonder if the lack of signing could be partly to do with the lack of specifics. Asking for an end of "Gender Apartheid" as such may not mean enough for people to catch on? OTOH it's so all encompassing it's hard to think of specific "demands". (I still think a big point should be made of it however.

Of what importance is the suffering of Afghan women, even those dying in childbirth through lack of midwives or even basic medical care, compared with contracts worth millions of pounds? never mind the prestige. Sadly very very little.

There's an Afghan man on X who has posted more than once that as cricket is the only popular sport in Afghanistan the women will get pleasure from watching the coverage so surely we wouldn't want to deny them that. Not being able to live anything approaching a normal life obviously pales beside the enormity of missing some cricket coverage. They'll have to hope the TV set is not within sight of a window or they'll still be unable to watch.

Rosie51, the random X posts if a Afghan man can’t influence we lucky western women to support a cricket game surely

Complaining in supermarkets where South African apples were sold drew attention to apartheid. It and other protests led to change. I’m an Afghan woman, living in fear every minute of every day. I used to work. Now I’m confined to a small space with no windows. I’m not allowed to speak with other women. I hear via secret communication methods, wealthy lucky western women support the cricket tour because they think I’ll enjoy it. Be allowed to watch it

There must be many husbands and sons in Afghanistan, particularly Kabul, whose mums / partners were professional women, & equal stakeholders in the family. I expect they are just as angry about this mistreatment as we are. But what can they do? They are under a government of extremists & dissent is dangerous.

Iam64 Rosie51, the random X posts if a Afghan man can’t influence we lucky western women to support a cricket game surely
Could there be any western women who would seriously believe that watching the men play cricket would be a welcome enhancement to the lives of Afghan women?

valdali But what can they do? well one things for sure if they do nothing, then nothing will ever change. If their lives were being subjected to the same rules they'd soon find some courage.

1576 signatures.

It’s disappointingly low. Hard to understand why women don’t stand together with support for others living as they do in hiding. Imagine it being illegal to speak outside the home. Or girls not allowed education after 11 or 12 years old. Or all the rest…..

It's very disappointingly low.. I get masses of petitions sent to me but not this one.. perhaps people just haven't seen it..

I suspect people are losing faith in petitions. I don't think this one is likely to achieve anything, although I have signed in the hope that it might.