ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes how the Taliban’s two periods of rule (1996–2001 and 2021–present) have reconfigured Afghan public life by regulating sport and related cultural practices. It links Talibanization to madrasa networks, Pakistani patronage, and shifting Pashtun identity, then shows how the first Emirate turned recreation into rule: women were barred from sport and spectatorship, men’s sport was policed through dress and conduct codes, leisure such as kite flying was outlawed, and stadiums became venues for public punishment. After 2001, the country’s institutions reopened sporting space for women, yet an ongoing insurgency sustained parallel Taliban authority. Since August 2021, restrictions have again expelled women athletes into exile or hiding while men’s cricket expands with state support and funding. The chapter further argues that cricket now performs a political triad of social control, nationalism, and regional geopolitics, sharpening Afghanistan-Pakistan tensions rooted in the history of the Durand Line.
