ABSTRACT
This book critically examined the historical and contemporary issues faced by Afghan and Pakistani athletes (e.g., migration, Talibanization, postcolonialism, and neoliberal economic systems). Sporting realms are social and political institutions bound up with power. Moreover, organized sport does more than mirror global inequality; it actively creates, sustains, and enforces it. Thus, the question guiding this conclusion is, “Where do we go from here, ethically, politically, and structurally, if we accept that sport is both wounded by power and capable of challenging it?” If sport is a continuation of politics, and politics is shaped by empire and neoliberal economics, then sport must be reimagined through decolonial transformation. In the extant scholarship, knowledge about sport, migration, gender, and identity continues to be produced through Eurocentric frameworks that claim universality while ignoring the lived realities and intellectual traditions of the Global South. The insights from Afghan and Pakistani athletes revealed structural failures of global sport and offered alternative ways of thinking about mobility, identity, ethics, and resistance. Their views must not be translated into Western theory to gain legitimacy; they should stand as theory in their own right. Therefore, theoretical expansion from the Global South lens is not optional; it is necessary.
