Australian opener Usman Khawaja will auction off the “All Lives Are Equal” shoes which he was banned from wearing during the Pakistan Test series to raise funds for Palestinian children. Usman Khawaja recently announced on social media that he had partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to donate the proceeds from the auction to the organisation’s Children of Gaza appeal.
“Hey everyone. Want to announce I’m auctioning off my shoes … all proceeds will go to the ‘Unicef Children of Gaza’ appeal. The kids need your help now more (than) ever and as always thank you for your support and generosity. All you guys have been amazing,” Khawaja wrote on Instagram.
Spoke on humanitarian issues: Khawaja
Last week, Khawaja released a line of T-shirts featuring his banned shoes adorned with messages like “freedom is a human right.” The ICC had prohibited him from donning the shoes, citing references to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict during Australia’s Test series against Pakistan.
“I’m trying to do it in the most respectful way possible. What I wrote on my shoes, I thought about it for a while what I was going to write. I made sure that I didn’t want to segregate different parts of the population, religious beliefs, communities, hence why I’ve kept religion out of this. I wanted to be really broad and open mind speaking because I’m talking about humanitarian issues and talking about Article One of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, that is literally the crux of it,” he said as quoted by The Australian.
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