What's missing from this photo? Why a cricketer is being criticised for his wedding snaps

Afghan cricket star Rashid Khan's opulent wedding photos have sparked criticism for one major missing factor.

Afghan cricket star Rashid Khan celebrated his wedding with some of his teammates in Kabul. Credit: X/Mohammad Nabi

It was a wedding, by most standards, opulent, extravagant and lavish — fit for an international sporting star.

In Afghanistan's capital Kabul, cricket legend Rashid Khan celebrated his nuptials at a wedding venue dripped in gold and opulent finishes.

Celebrating alongside the T20I spinner were his teammates on the Afghan cricket team, some of whom snapped pictures of themselves with the groom.

"Congratulations to the one and only King Khan, Rashid Khan, on your wedding! Wishing you a lifetime of love, happiness, and success ahead," teammate Mohammad Nabi wrote on X.

But there was one major missing factor in the pictures that have been made public so far — his bride.

"Where is the bride," wondered one X user.

"I feel sorry for her," Marzieh Hamidi, former taekwondo athlete for Afghanistan who now lives in France as a refugee, said in a social media post.

"This picture is full of men, where is the bride?"

The Afghan Cricket Association also published pictures of the cricketer, wishing him and his new bride "a lifetime filled with love, joy, and endless happiness as you embark on this beautiful journey together", but without any visual references to Khan's new wife.

In some Afghan weddings, it is customary for the women and men to be segregated in different rooms to celebrate.

In most public pictures of Khan's wedding, the men are pictured in one room with the groom.

Afghan women 'erased' from public life

The Taliban has received worldwide condemnation for its series of crackdowns on women's freedoms since its 2021 takeover of the war-torn country, in what many human rights advocates have described as a move to "erase" women from public life.

After banning girls over the age of 12 from education and limiting their movements outside the home, the militant group banned women from showing their faces and speaking or singing in public.

Khan has been criticised for not raising his voice to the plight of women in his country, including the ban on women's cricket.

Earlier this year, Australia's cricket governing body withdrew from the three-ODI series against Afghanistan in the United Arab Emirates, citing the Taliban's ban on women from higher education.

In responding to questions about women's rights, Khan said cricket was the "only source of happiness" for Afghans and should not be taken away from ordinary people.

"Some things which are not under the control of anyone in cricket, and that's something we can't do anything about it."