The Taliban Cricket Club: A Book of Courage, Love and power of Woman Spirit Written By Timeri N. Murari

The Taliban Cricket Club: A Book of Courage, Love and power of Woman Spirit Written By  Timeri N. Murari

Taliban is an extreme fundamentalist Islamic group that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. They consider themselves as followers of Islam, but majority Muslims do not agree with them and think that their beliefs are much more extreme.  During their rules in Afghanistan, they have banned all hobbies and activities and carried out the massacres of Afghan Civilians. They banned all types of entertainment,  English literature, any Films and music, sports except Football , keeping pets and also wedding ceremonies. They did cultural genocide by destroying numerous monuments like 1500 year old Buddhas of Bamiyan. Under this rule, women were struggling against oppression. They were subjected to brutal repression. They were abused and violently enforced by the religious police. They were forbidding education, forcing girls to leave the schools and colleges, force women to remain in house and allow them to go out along with their male relatives and obligated them to wear the burqa. Women were banned from working and told them that home or grave is the only place for them. If these rules were broken, they endured punishments raging from beating to execution. One of the best examples is of Sohaila who was charged with adultery after walking with a man who was note her relative. For that, she was publicly flogged in Ghazi Stadium.  All these incidents have been properly narrated in the book named as The Taliban cricket Club written by Timeri N Murari.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

There are so many books that have been written about terrible Taliban Rule.  In other words, Life of Afghan people has become a sellable literary genre of its own. It starts from Kite runner written by Khaled Hosseini.  Any writings about Taliban Rule and oppression of women under Taliban received a great market value to sell the story.  The Taliban cricket Club which was written by Timeri Murari has narrated the reality of the horrible life of women under the Taliban regime. This is the masterpiece where the writer takes his premise and tells us the story of Rukhsana, the main character of this novel, who feels crushed, smothered and lives life with fear under Taliban.

After completing the education on journalism in Delhi, 23 years old Rukhsana returned back to Kabul to take care of her widow mother who was battling with the last stages of cancer and 16 years old brother Jahan.  When she was completing her education in journalism, she learnt to play Cricket in Delhi, India and also fell in love with Hindu boy Veer who was a bold and fearless maker of wildlife documentaries.  Due to her commitment to an arranged marriage with her childhood sweetheart Shaheen who has already been in the United States of America and was supposed to make an arrangement for her and also the matter of religion, she decided not to carry further her love affairs with Veer.

After returning back to Kabul, she joined as correspondent in local newspaper Kabul Daily.  She did this job till the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. They told women to stop working and their place is in the home or in the grave.  They restricted their life outside their houses. If any woman wants to go outside, she has to wear Burqa and accompanied by a male relative. If they broke the rules, then they endured punishment ranging from beatings to execution.  Despite the new rules, Rukhsana continued to work in Kabul Daily and used to go in public life without using a burqa. One of the ministers for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Zorak Wahidi, arrived in her office. He was a cruel and ruthless person. She was beaten and asked to leave the office immediately for home. Still she continued to write to Indian Newspaper Hindustan Times secretly for giving support to her dying mother and teenage brother.  By doing this, she is always afraid that if she is caught writing it will bring her end.

One day Rukhsana received the message that she had been asked to report to Zorak Wahidi in his office. She started worrying whether the Taliban came to know about her secret writing. When she visited there along with her sixteen year old brother Jahan and cousin Pervez, she saw all her male colleagues have also been called. After some time Zorak Wahidi arrived and announced that the Taliban had decided to remove the ban on Cricket games and intended to hold cricket tournaments to become part of world organisation by creating an air of respectability and sportsmanship to their region. The winners will be sent to Pakistan for further training and Afghanistan is going to apply for an ICC membership. At the time of doing this, Zorak Wahidi informed Rukhsana’s brother about his intention to marry with Rukhsana. This was very shocking news to her. She knew that marrying Zorak Wahidi means losing the freedom forever and refusing means certain death for her family and herself. 

Rukhsana knows that Taliban will never embrace a civility of game, its fairness and equality. It is a shameful and unbelievable idea as most of the people in Afghanistan are not aware of the game. She informed her cousins that cricket is a nonviolent game and will never become popular in Afghanistan. But she also realised that this is the best opportunity to get out from Afghanistan for her, her brother and cousins. Rukhsana was aware of this game. She learnt this game from her childhood friend and betrothed Shaheen who learned this game from his Pakistani counterpart Shaheen. When she was in India, she was playing the game for her college team in Delhi.  Therefore, she decided to teach this game to her brother and her cousins. She formed the team of her cousins to play cricket and gave them hopes to escape from Afghanistan and became their coach. While teaching to play, she felt uncomfortable in burqa. Therefore, she changed her get up from her beautician and became a boy by wearing a fake beard and walked around unrecognized.

Meanwhile she started writing to her betrothed Shaheen but she never received any response from him. At last, she decided to call Veer who used to keep on writing to her but she never used to respond. Veer with the help of some diplomat arrived in Kabul and helped Rukhsana, her brother and her cousins to win the tournaments. After getting a letter for Zorak Wahidi for getting training in Pakistan, they escaped from Afghanistan and from Pakistan they came to Delhi to collect their Visa for the USA.

Timeri Murari is an Indian Novelist, playwright, journalist and screenwriter. He was born in Chennai, studied in Bangalore and left India for the UK where he completed his degree in electronic engineering and later completed his study in History and Political science at McGill University and started writing in Guardians and other international newspapers.  He has written ten novels like Chanakya Returns, The small house,  The arrangement of love , Enduring Affairs, The Marriage, etc. He has also written five nonfictions like  express of Taj, in search of Mumtaz Mahal, My temporary son: An orphan’s Journey, Going Home : Black family returns south, The New Savages, Children of the Liverpool streets, Limping to the central of the world, A Pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. He has written seven plays and also three screenplays for three films.

The Taliban Cricket club was published in 2012 by Harper Collins, Canada. This book is really good to read. Even though this book has been written keeping in mind kite runners, one has to forgive the writer and enjoy the book. This book is less about cricket but more about the social life of Afghanistan.

Mumbai

03/01/2021