Afghan campaigner for women’s education detained by Taliban

An Afghan man who campaigns for women’s education has been taken into custody by the Taliban authorities.

Matiullah Wesa, 30, was arrested on Monday evening in the Afghan capital Kabul. His brother said he was stopped by men in two vehicles outside a mosque.

"When Matiullah asked for their identity cards, they beat him and forcefully took him away," said Samiullah Wesa.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has also highlighted his case, adding his family had not heard from him since his arrest.

The organisation said: “Matiullah Wesa, head of PenPath and advocate for girls’ education, was arrested in Kabul Monday. UNAMA calls on the de-facto authorities to clarify his whereabouts, the reasons for his arrest and to ensure his access to legal representation and contact with family.”

Mr Wesa’s last tweet – on Monday, a day before his arrest – was a photo of women volunteers for PenPath, the charity and campaign group he founded in 2009. The group has more than 2,400 volunteers across the country, who set up local classrooms, find teachers and distribute books and stationery.

He wrote: “Men, women, elderly, young, everyone from every corner of the country are asking for the Islamic rights to education for their daughters.” Mr Wesa added in a separate tweet last week the damage caused by the closure of schools was “irreversible and undeniable”.

His arrest comes just weeks after Professor Ismail Mashal, an outspoken critic of the Taliban government's ban on education for women, was arrested in Kabul while handing out free books. He was freed on March 5, but has not spoken out since then or given any further detail of his treatment while in custody.

In this photograph from May last year, Matiullah Wesa, head of PenPath and advocate for girls' education in Afghanistan, speaks to children during a class next to his mobile library in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar Province.

Last year, the Taliban government, which seized power in August 2021, banned girls from middle school and high school despite initial promises to the contrary, restricted women from most fields of employment, and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. In December, female students were also barred from universities.

Women have also been barred from using funfairs and gyms in Afghanistan. There had already been rules in place which required parks to operate on separate days of the week for male and female access.