Australia pulls out of Afghanistan cricket sequence over Taliban’s restrictions on girls | CNN

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CNN
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Australia’s males’s cricket staff has withdrawn from a sequence of upcoming matches towards Afghanistan in protest over the ruling Taliban’s restrictions on girls and women’ schooling and employment, Cricket Australia (CA) stated in an announcement Thursday.

The groups have been scheduled to play three One Day Worldwide (ODI) video games within the United Arab Emirates in March, however CA determined to cancel the sequence after “in depth session” with “a number of stakeholders together with the Australian authorities,” the assertion stated.

“CA is dedicated to supporting rising the sport for ladies and men world wide, together with in Afghanistan, and can proceed to have interaction with the Afghanistan Cricket Board in anticipation of improved situations for girls and women within the nation,” it added.

In December, the Taliban introduced the suspension of college schooling for all feminine college students. The transfer adopted a choice in March to bar women from returning to secondary colleges, following months-long closures that had been in place for the reason that hardline Islamist group took over Afghanistan in August 2021.

Later that month, the Taliban ordered all native and worldwide non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to cease their feminine staff from coming to work, warning that non-compliance would end result within the revocation of their licenses.

Cricket Australia had beforehand backed out of a proposed Take a look at match towards Afghanistan attributable to be hosted in Tasmania in November of 2021 over the Taliban’s ban on girls taking part in sports activities.

“Driving the expansion of girls’s cricket globally is extremely vital to Cricket Australia. Our imaginative and prescient for cricket is that it’s a sport for all, and we assist the sport unequivocally for girls at each stage,” CA stated on the time.

Australia’s sports activities minister Anika Wells on Thursday stated Canberra helps Cricket Australia’s transfer.

“The Australian authorities welcomes Cricket Australia’s determination to withdraw from the upcoming males’s One Day Worldwide sequence towards Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s elevated suppression of girls and women’ rights,” she tweeted.

Though the Taliban repeatedly claimed it could defend the rights of women and girls, the group has accomplished the alternative, stripping away the hard-won freedoms for which girls have fought tirelessly over the previous 20 years.

The United Nations and at the very least half a dozen main international assist teams have stated they’re briefly suspending their operations in Afghanistan following the ban on feminine NGO staff.