The Taliban has prohibited mixed martial arts (MMA) in Afghanistan, claiming the sport is too violent and in breach of Islamic law, according to media reports.
The order was reportedly issued this week by the country’s ministry for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice, which claimed that MMA “poses a risk of death.”
“The free fighting games are banned from now on and no one is allowed to practice them,” a spokesman for the Taliban’s sports department, Atal Mashwani, told The Telegraph on Thursday.
“Those athletes who were involved in the sport can move to another sport of their choice and continue their activities,” he said.
According to Mashwani, the decision followed an investigation into the sport’s compliance with Islamic law. “After the investigation, it was decided that the sport should be banned.”
The spokesman noted that Afghan sports authorities do not have statistics on the number of athletes involved in the MMA, as the athletes “were part of private organizations and were not registered with the sports department.”
The Mixed Martial Arts Federation of Afghanistan, which was founded in 2008, had become popular among young people. In 2015, the first private MMA tournament was set up in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan Fighting Championship (AFC) and Truly Grand Fighting Championship (TGFC) hosted dozens of fights before the Taliban returned to power in 2021. However, competitions were soon thereafter effectively outlawed after legislation prohibiting “face-punching” was introduced.
According to media reports, most Afghan MMA fighters had left the country long before the latest announcement. Several Afghan athletes who competed at the Paris Games, on either the national or the Refugee Olympic teams, had originally been involved in martial arts. Due mainly to safety concerns, MMA is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
The Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s but was ousted in 2001 during the US-led invasion. The Taliban regained power in 2021 after a 20-year insurgency, forcing Afghanistan’s internationally recognized president, Ashraf Ghani, to flee the country.