KABUL - Representatives from various Afghan sports bodies today elected a new president of the National Olympic Committee of Afghanistan (NOCA), with the newly-appointed official pledging to develop sports participation in the country as well as use it to help promote peace.

In a gathering in the capital, Kabul, representatives from 27 Afghan sports federations, from a total of 29 eligible to take part in the vote, elected Fahim Hashimi as the new President of NOCA. Mr. Hashimi, the only candidate for the position, had been serving as the acting president for the past month. He will serve a four-year term.

In his remarks after his election, NOCA’s leader said that a new strategic plan would be devised for the development of sports in the country.

“Today, sports make up a key part of Afghanistan’s society,” Mr. Hashimi noted, in addition to promising that he would use all available resources to encourage greater participation in sports.

He also emphasized the need to provide equal opportunities for women in the sports arena so that they can compete at the same level as men.

Speaking after the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke, noted how that event helped pave the road for future successes in promoting social change in a range of areas, from gender equality to peace building.

According to the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace, sport, as a universal language, can be a powerful tool to promote peace, tolerance and understanding by bringing people together across boundaries, cultures and religions. Its intrinsic values such as teamwork, fairness, discipline, respect for the opponent and the rules of the game are understood all over the world and can be harnessed in the advancement of solidarity, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence, the UN agency notes.

Afghan sports have made significant achievements since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Currently, the country has a total of 59 sports federations, out of which women actively participate in 20. Significant achievements have been made in cricket, football, taekwondo, boxing and karate, and the country has experienced success at the Olympic level with a taekwondo athlete, Rohullah Nekpa, winning the bronze medal twice for Afghanistan, in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Two Afghan female athletes, Rubina Muqimyar and Fariba Rezayee, participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, in athletics and judo, respectively. Ms. Moqimyar again participated in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, in athletics. In 2012, another female athlete, Tehmina Kohistani, participated in the Olympic Games in London, also in athletics.

Outside of the Olympic sphere, the Afghan national football team won the finals of the South Asian Football Tournament in 2013, while the national cricket team competes in key tournaments.

The sports federations which took part in today’s NOCA elections included those involved in boxing, buzkashi, badminton, chess, cycling, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, karate, hockey, judo, cricket, hiking, table tennis, rugby, snooker, tennis, volleyball, wrestling and weightlifting, among others.