The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the UN said yesterday.
The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending the equivalent of junior-high school.
“Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path and advocate for girls’ education, was arrested in Kabul Monday,” the UN mission in Afghanistan wrote on Twitter.
Photo: AFP
Wesa’s brother confirmed his arrest, saying he was picked up outside a mosque after prayers on Monday evening.
“Matiullah had finished his prayers and came out of the mosque when he was stopped by some men in two vehicles,” Samiullah Wesa told reporters. “When Matiullah asked for their identity cards, they beat him and forcefully took him away.”
The organization Matiullah Wesa founded — which campaigns for schools and distributes books in rural areas — has long dedicated itself to communicating the importance of girls’ education to village elders.
Since the ban on junior-high schools for girls, Matiullah Wesa has continued visiting remote areas to drum up support from locals.
“We are counting hours, mins and seconds for the opening of girls schools. The damage that closure of schools causes is irreversible and undeniable,” he wrote on Twitter last week as the new school year started in Afghanistan. “We held meetings with locals and we will continue our protest if the schools remain closed.”
The Taliban — which has also banned women from university — has said that schools would be reopened for girls once certain conditions have been met.
There is a lack the funds and time to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines, the Taliban has said.
The order against girls’ education is believed to have been made by Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his aides, who are skeptical of modern education.
As well as sparking international outrage, it has stirred criticism from within the movement, with some senior officials in the Kabul government as well as many rank-and-file members against the decision.
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