Taliban officials have rejected reports that Afghanistan will send female athletes to the Asian Games in China later this month, saying all 133 athletes in the delegation being sent are male.
In reaction to a report on Reuters early on September 6, Ahmadullah Wasiq, the head of physical education and sport in the country, said in a written statement to RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that it was not true that 17 athletes on the team were female.
Two years since it overran the country and ousted the Western-backed Afghan government, the hard-line Taliban has failed to live up to promises of moderation and has instead severely curbed women's freedoms, waged a brutal crackdown on dissent, and reintroduced their brutal form of justice.
The Taliban's theocratic de facto government has imposed restrictions on every aspect of life in Afghanistan, including people's appearance, freedom of movement, right to work or study, and access to entertainment.
The result has been the crushing of female sport in the country, prompting many prominent women to flee the country.
The International Olympic Committee warned Afghanistan's Taliban rulers in December that allowing women and young girls safe access to sport was a condition for the country's representation at the 2024 Paris Games.
Reuters quoted a September 6 statement by Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee that claimed that the country would send "a female group sports team comprising a total of 17 phenomenal women athletes." It added that they would compete in three sports: athletics, cycling, and volleyball.
Wasiq said the statement quoted by Reuters on participation in the Asian Games, which will be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8, was not issued by the National Olympic Committee.
In a July report, UN experts said that the situation of girls and women in Afghanistan was the worst in the world and added that systematic restrictions on women and girls could amount to "gender apartheid."