Afghan athlete's DQ shows IOC's support of women is not unconditional

By the time the Paris 2024 Olympics began, more than 120 million people around the world were refugees.

This means that they have survived being forcibly displaced worldwide and have faced persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.

Families being torn apart, missing your homeland and support systems are not ideal conditions for athletes to excel. But losing sport entirely is also traumatizing and since 2016, the International Olympic Committee found a way to keep displaced athletes in sport and created the Refugee Olympic Committee (Équipe olympique des réfugiés — EOR) so that athletes who had to flee or evacuate but did not have citizenship would not be lost to the sports world.

The athletes representing EOR in Paris are there not only because of their physical strength, but because of a defiant determination and unbreakable spirit to continue in sports despite the most unfathomable conditions.

I wrote about the first EOR during Rio 2016. I called this team "a light in darkness." The IOC and host countries struggle with a lot of things (many of them political) but the EOR was such a great initiative and to not forget that athletes become victims to circumstances beyond their control.

WATCH | Essay: IOC's gender equity rules go against organization's own principals of freedom:

Olympic refugee breakdancer reveals 'Free Afghan Women' cape while competing at Paris 2024

4 months ago

Duration 0:58

Olympic refugee team breakdancer Manizha Talash, known as B-girl Talash, removes her shirt to reveal a "Free Afghan Women" cape during competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Talash was born in Afghanistan but fled the country in 2021 after the Taliban returned to power.

The Paris 2024 team is made up of 37 talented athletes – 13 of them are women – competing in 12 different sports. They're a team born from circumstance and opportunity. Their existence signifies hope, belonging and inclusion.

Despite the attempts of the IOC to claim that they do not want to be political, the reality is that sport is and will always be political. The existence of the EOR points to global unrest and politics as one of the complex layers why the team exists.

There have been tremendous moment of joy and firsts amongst this team. Cindy Ngamba's road to the podium is one that could easily be made into a film. As the first athlete of the EOR to ever medal, her success in winning a bronze medal in Paris is outstanding. Born in Cameroon, she was still learning how to speak English when she started boxing in England. Today she trains out of the Team GB gym at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. It's not uncommon for national sports organizations and Olympic Committees to support EOR athletes. 

Here in Canada, Nigara Shaheen is an Afghan judoka whose home is now Toronto. She was named to the EOR and is supported by the Canadian Olympic Committee. 

Ngamba's presence and that of her 36 teammates should be enough to make us well up with tears. They are athletes  dedicated to sport and want to win, like everyone else at the Olympics.

While I appreciate the concept and principles of the EOR, I can't help but find it fascinating and dare-I-say political that the chef de mission for the EOR is Masomah Ali Zada, a cyclist from Afghanistan who now lives in France. Ali Zada wears a hijab which is banned in France for political reasons, and she would not be welcome into the sports ecosystem if she wanted to play for France.

Just ahead of the Olympics, I spoke with Jennifer Cooper, Global Advisor for UN Women. Cooper told me that they work closely with the IOC. While there are no easy answers and it's a long process, understanding the complexities are essential.

"You know, I don't want to be the big cheerleader for the International Olympic Committee," she said. "I'm familiar with their work and I can say that, to the extent that they have the ability, they're sort of like us in the United Nations, you know, we can come up with wonderful policies, but then it's up to the different layers to implement those and to embrace them. So it's a process."

The position of the IOC is that while they recognize milestones, they understand that huge gaps remain. They are aware of sexual harassment and abuse, and have worked on safe reporting mechanisms in the Olympic Village.

But another gap could be the issues of abusers at the Olympics. There was an absolute PR disaster for the IOC when it was discovered that Steven Van de Velde is a convicted child rapist and was included on the Dutch beach volleyball team.

New allegations of sexual assault against Bruce Mwape, Zambia's women's football coach, were in the headlines. Subsequently, Mwape was not permitted to stay in the Athletes Village with the team.

And finally, Canadian gold medallist Andre De Grasse's coach, Rana Reider, had his accreditation stripped by the COC over new allegations of emotional and sexual abuse.

Another huge miss from the IOC towards the EOR is the fact that Afghan breaker Manizha Talash was disqualified for displaying a homemade cape that read "Free Afghan Women" at the end of her dance battle on Saturday.

Talash did not advance beyond group stages, but to disqualify her from competition because she publicly stated why she was a member of the EOR is bizarre. A statement from the World DanceSport Federation said that Talash "was disqualified for displaying a political slogan on her attire during the pre-qualifier battle."

WATCH | Talash displays "Free Afghan Women" cape at breaking event:

Video Essay: Gender equity but no right to play

4 months ago

Duration 1:29

Paris 2024 is the first Olympic Games to reach gender parity with equal numbers of men and women athletes, but France has banned its own hijab-wearing women athletes in defence of secularism. CBC Sports' senior contributor Shireen Ahmed explores how excluding Muslim women from sport, because they choose to cover, is against the principles of freedom that the IOC claims to uphold.

The IOC's executive board invited Talash to be part of the EOR after learning about her brave efforts to defy and resist the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which invaded in 2021. Some Afghan women have labelled the Taliban as being complicit in gender apartheid. Not a great look when we consider the gender equality vibe that the IOC was going for at the Olympics. 

The Taliban regime has been devastating for women in Afghanistan. Her presence at the Olympics is important because it signifies that competing for Afghanistan is not safe for all women. But the fact that Talash decided to be even more public about her protests in Paris resulted in a disqualification is absurd.

These Olympics have been labelled as one of gender parity. Beyond the stats or the clickbait headline, there is context. In this context, the IOC failed women like Talash.

Her sisters around the world who are victim to misogyny, systems of oppression and toxic patriarchy will watch these Olympics and wonder why she was not further supported. Furthermore, there are survivors of sexual assault and violence around the world probably wondering why, in an age of glorious gender parity, there was space to allow for inclusion of abusers?

As much as society wants women to stand up and be strong, they aren't permitted to actually say what they want at the Olympics lest it be too political. But the mess that the IOC has created is unacceptable and hypocritical.

Either you support women in all their entities or you don't. If that's too political then the IOC has certainly missed the mark on this one.