King Charles met the Afghan Refugee Women's Cricket Team at Clarence House on Wednesday, hearing firsthand about their perilous escape from Taliban rule. The team, which is not recognized by Afghanistan where women's sport is banned, shared their experiences of being smuggled out of the country with only the clothes on their backs.
Escape from Taliban Rule
The King asked the players about their journey, inquiring if they had fled in 2021 and whether they had crossed into Pakistan with their families. Firooza Amiri, 21, told the King: “It has been a very difficult and terrifying journey for all of us. There were a lot of Taliban checkpoints. We thought it’s going to be the last one, we won’t survive any more. But we made it.”
Since the Taliban regained control in August 2021, women in Afghanistan have faced severe restrictions, including bans on education, employment, and sports. A hitlist of female athletes was circulated, and a volleyball player was killed. The cricket team members, many teenagers, were forced into hiding before escaping.
Rescue Operation and New Life
Former Australian cricketer Mel Jones, along with team manager Emma Staples and sports lawyer Catherine Ordway, orchestrated the evacuation. Jones said: “There were about 134 people we got out. They had a backpack each with their entire lives and had to burn anything that said they played cricket, all their cricket equipment.” Most players now live in Australia, with one in Canada and one in the UK.
The team is in the UK for a series of matches, including a game against Cambridge University Cricket Club on Saturday. King Charles, noting that Cambridge was his alma mater, remarked: “My old university.”
Meeting with the King
During the meeting, player Ekil Latifi, 21, asked the King for a “posh word” like “lavatory.” Charles laughed and replied, “I think I would need advance warning for that.” Shabnam Ahsan, 18, from Kabul, expressed disappointment that the team cannot compete in the T20 Women’s World Cup hosted by England because they are not recognized by Afghanistan. She said: “When we found out we were meeting the King it meant a lot to us and it means a lot back in Afghanistan where women don’t have the right to go out. We’re here to fight for them.”
The event, organized through the UK Foreign Office, was moved indoors due to a heatwave. Afterwards, the King posed for photos and received a signed shirt and a decorated cricket bat.
