Afghanistan's Taliban regime has not certified three female athletes to represent the country at this month's Olympic Games in Paris, a spokesman for the country's sports authority said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) invited a team of six Afghan athletes (three women and three men) to participate, in consultation with Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee, most of whom are abroad.
“Only three athletes will represent Afghanistan,” Athar Mashwani, a spokesman for the Taliban regime's sports department, said of the men's athletes.
“Right now women's sports are stopped in Afghanistan. How can they get into the national team when women's sports are not being carried out?” he told AFP.
All three female players and two male players live outside Afghanistan.
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Only the judo athletes are training domestically, while their teammates are scheduled to compete in athletics and swimming.
Women compete in athletics and cycling.
The IOC said it had not consulted with Taliban officials about the team and had not invited it to the Olympics.
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Spokesman Mark Adams confirmed last month that Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee, which includes the president and secretary-general, who live in exile, remains the “sole negotiator regarding the preparation and participation of Afghan athletes.”
But Dad Mohammad Payenda Aqtari, CEO of the Afghanistan committee, who is still in the country, said that while the women's team is being organised abroad, the committee is coordinating with Taliban authorities for the men's team.
Mashwani maintained that the government was supporting them with training and scholarships.
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“We are only responsible for the three men who will take part in the Olympics,” he told AFP.
Participants will compete under the black, red and green flag of the former Western-backed government that collapsed after U.S. troops withdrew three years ago.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have tightened restrictions to bar women from sports, secondary schools and universities.
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The United Nations has described these restrictions as “gender apartheid.”
The IOC banned Afghanistan from the Olympics in 1999, at the beginning of the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, which also banned women from participating in sports.
The Paris Games will be Afghanistan's first Summer Olympics since reinstating as a nation after the post-9/11 invasion ousted the Taliban.
This time, the IOC took a different approach, admitting the Afghan team under a system that ensures all 206 countries take part even if their athletes do not qualify.
