Are Women's Rights Unravelling in Afghanistan?

Women's rights have come a long way in Afghanistan over the last 20 years. Will the recent Taliban takeover unravel all that hard work - and worse.Video of the Deputy Head of Taliban's Cultural Commission saying women would not be allowed to play cricket or other sports where they are exposed has sent alarm bells ringing. Listen to Voices on women's rights in AfghanistanFOLLOW Voices on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Zahra Hussaini is a community advocate, based in Christchurch, who finds this latest development very concerning."It's heart-breaking for me to see that," she said. "I believe sports play an integral part in women's, or any human's, well-being, whether it's physical or mental."" have a very negative impact on women. It's disempowering. I can not imagine what those women are feeling."Ahmadullah Wasiq, Deputy Head of Taliban's Cultural Commission, told Australia's SBS network that Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or the kinds of sports where they get exposed."Even if we face challenges and problems, we have fought for our religion so that Islam is followed," he said.Cricket Australia responded saying it would cancel an up-coming men's test if the women were banned, but the Afghan Cricket Board says there was a misunderstanding and women would be allowed to play as long as they abide by Islamic dress code.At this stage, New Zealand Cricket isn't taking a position on the possible ban, but White Fern Katey Martin expressed her hopes that the Afghanistan women's team would continue to take part in International Cricket competitions. Katey MartinMany female athletes are not waiting to see what sort of restrictions will be imposed. The national youth football teams evacuated to Pakistan last week.Amina Hassanpour was already concerned about the changes she was seeing before she was evacuated from Afghanistan and brought to New Zealand."The women have not allowed to go to a school even. The women are not allowed to go to bazaar for shopping without a Mahram. We have lost most of our achievements for women," she said.The Taliban regime has not yet suggested girls will be banned from school, but it has announced some changes to how women will be able to access tertiary education.Zahra Hussaini isn't sure what to think about it all…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details