Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/KABUL: Afghan Taliban have “detained and beaten” an educator who voiced outrage against their ban on university education of women on a live TV show, his aide said on Friday.
During a live TV show in December, Ismail Mashal, a veteran journalism lecturer, caused a storm by tearing his degree certificates to shreds, protesting the edict ending women’s higher education. Recently, local channels showed Mashal carting books in Kabul and offering them to the local people.
“The members of the Islamic Emirate have beaten Mashal mercilessly and taken him away in a very disrespectful manner,” Mashal’s friend Farid Ahmad Fazli referring to the Taliban government, told AFP.
Taliban official confirms news of educator’s detention
According to a tweet from the Ministry of Information and Culture director Abdul Haq Hammad, “Teacher Mashal has been engaging in provocative measures against the system for some time. The security services for inquiry took him up.”
Mashal, a lecturer at three Kabul colleges for over a decade, was jailed on Thursday despite having “done no crime,” according to Fazli. “He was giving free books to women and men. He added that he is still in custody, and we don’t know where he is being held,” he added.
Footage of Mashal destroying his certificates on the TOLOnews, a private channel went viral on social media.
In a profoundly patriarchal and conservative society in the country, it is rare to see a man protest in support of women. Still, Mashal ran a co-educational institute and said he would stand up for women’s rights.
“As a teacher and a man, I could not do anything else for them, and I now believe that my certificates had become useless. So, I tore them apart,” he told AFP earlier. “I’m standing with my sisters and raising my voice. I will continue my protest even if it costs my life.”
A small group of male students organized another brief walkout opposing the prohibition was organized by a small group of male students.
When the Taliban took back power in August 2021, they promised a more liberal government, but instead, they put severe restrictions on women’s rights, essentially excluding them from public life.
The authorities in December last year ordered all aid groups to stop their women employees from returning to work. They have since given an exemption to the health sector and allowed females to rejoin their work.
The girls’ secondary schools have closed for over a year, while many women have lost jobs in government sectors. They have also been stopped from public baths, parks, and gyms.
