The rest of the world doesn’t owe the Taliban any respect. The brutal terrorists, who just overthrew the Afghan government during the Biden administration’s tumultuous withdrawal of troops from the country, don’t deserve a spot in the international community. That includes competing in international athletic events.
The International Olympic Committee and other international sports bodies should look at the Taliban with contempt and exclude Afghanistan from competing as long as the Taliban are in power.
During the Taliban’s initial rule over Afghanistan, the IOC banned the country from competing in the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, because the Taliban barred women from playing sports.
It was a good call because the Taliban have no respect for athletics. The last time the extremist group was in power, the Taliban banned various activities that people enjoy, including cricket, soccer, any sports that took place later in the day because they interfered with Muslim prayer. They also didn’t let women participate in public life.
The Taliban organization used terrorism to regain power and bans things such as television, music, movies, and girls over the age of 10 going to school. It has enabled plenty of abuses against women over the years. Not to mention there are connections between the Taliban and al Qaeda, and the Taliban’s refusal to hand over the leader of al Qaeda is why the United States took the Taliban out of power 20 years ago.
If the Taliban want Afghanistan to compete in worldwide athletics, that’s too bad. There are Olympic teams for both men and women, and given that the Taliban have no interest in letting women compete, there is no reason for the rest of the world to let the country compete. The international community should not reward that kind of behavior — just like it didn’t reward South Africa toward the end of apartheid. South Africa was rightfully condemned and excluded from the Olympics for its treatment of its black and mixed-race residents.
While customs and practices across the world are different depending on the country, what the Taliban want to do is not normal. They want to control every aspect of people’s lives and turn Afghanistan into a repressive Islamic theocracy based on their specific interpretation of the Quran.
While the U.S. is no longer interested in fighting in Afghanistan, there is at least an opportunity to give the impression this tin-pot dictatorship isn’t a respected member of the international community. It’s an opportunity that’s well worth taking.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
