The Taliban government in Afghanistan has suspended the game of chess because of their concerns that it constitutes a form of gambling under Islamic law. A spokesman for the Taliban stated that the game is under review to determine its compatibility with Sharia law and will remain banned until a decision is made. This is part of a broader pattern of restrictions imposed by the Taliban since their return to power in August 2021, previously they had banned women from participating in sports and outlawed activities like mixed martial arts, which they deemed too violent and inconsistent with Islamic teachings. This chess ban has affected local businesses such as cafes that hosted informal tournaments. One owner had even expressed his concern over the impact on youth engagement, saying that many young people frequently visit his cafe to play and socialize over tea.
When I saw this I was quite surprised and confused. I feel like Chess is a world loved game and to see that it can be related to gambling kinda confused me. Because can’t you realistically gamble on anything? I mean we gamble on running horses, how is this any different? It feels silly, but then it makes me wonder if they are just trying to enforce more control. In the article they even state about their return to power in 2021 and that they have been having this power of restricting more things.
The people of Afghanistan are pretty unhappy, obviously. Especially the Cafe owners that host tournaments. The only money that was probably involved was the one to buy the tea while they played and now the store owners are having suffered due to this, it makes me wonder since they hosted these tournaments if they will be in more trouble for doing so. And let’s say that these cafes do get put out of business, how many people will be out of a job? How many people will this affect? All over a simple game of chess seems quite crazy to me.
I am not sure if I remember talking about anything like this in class, especially considering the absurdity of this. I mean there are things like this that has happened and I am not doubting that but the closest thing I can think of when I think of taking someone’s game of chess was when we talked about human rights but I don’t really see Chess as a human right and I don’t think many will but many can argue with that. But maybe this could lead to something like that and could lead to citizens getting their human rights taken away.