ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has urged the Afghan Taliban to release Matiullah Wesa, an education activist detained recently in Kabul for his activism supporting girls’ education.
The detention of Wesa, who had been running mobile schools and libraries in Afghanistan to educate boys and girls, has alarmed Malala, who slated the Taliban for curbs on girls’ education and their arrest of education champions like Wesa.
The outspoken education advocate, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012, spoke out against Wesa’s arrest, calling it an assault on education. Malala’s call to release Wesa highlights the ongoing struggle for the right to education in Afghanistan, particularly for girls and young women in the face of Taliban rule.
While banning girls from school, the Taliban are also arresting champions of education. @matiullahwesa founded @penpath1 to provide mobile schools & libraries to Afghan girls and boys. The Taliban must release him and all those imprisoned for educating children. #FreeWessa pic.twitter.com/j52WhIJGCU
— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) March 28, 2023
In a tweet on Tuesday, Malala criticized the Taliban’s government restrictions on girls’ education and their arrest of Wesa. She urged the Taliban to release him and all those who had been imprisoned for educating children.
According to Matiullah’s brother, the education activist had been receiving threats for some time due to his activities for Afghan girls and women’s education under his organization, PenPath. His home was reportedly raided during his arrest, although the government hasn’t provided details on the incident.
Matiullah was one of the most eminent activists in Afghanistan, campaigning for girls’ and women’s rights to study since the Taliban locked female education in 2021. On the day of his arrest, he had tweeted an image of women volunteers for PenPath asking for Islamic rights to education for their daughters.
Matiullah Wesa, head of @PenPath1 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. pic.twitter.com/D6N1mjWxLv
— UNAMA News (@UNAMAnews) March 28, 2023
According to his brother, Matiullah was reportedly stopped by a group of men in two vehicles after finishing his prayers at the mosque. When he asked for their national identity cards, they beat him and forcibly took him away.
Afghanistan remains a challenging environment for girls and women, with several still facing discrimination, violence, and limited access to advanced education and also employment opportunities.
According to AFP, the organisation Matiullah founded, which campaigns for schools and distributes books in rural places, has long dedicated itself to communicating the significance of girls’ education to village elders.
Since the restrictions on secondary schools for girls, Matiullah has continued visiting remote areas to drum up support from locals for their education.
“We’re counting hours, mins, and seconds for the opening of Afghan girls’ schools. The harm that closure of schools causes is irreversible and undeniable,” he tweeted last week as the school reopened in Afghanistan.
“We held meetings with local people and would continue our protest if the schools remain closed.”
The Taliban back to power in 2021 after the withdrawal of the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces that backed the previous governments.
Taliban leaders who have banned women from universities have repeatedly claimed they will reopen schools for afghan girls once certain conditions have been met.
They said they lack the funds and time to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines.
Taliban administration made similar assurances during their first period in power from 1996 to 2001, but afghan girls’ schools never opened in five years.
The order against afghan girls’ education is believed to have been made by Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his ultra-conservative aides, who are deeply sceptical of modern education — especially for women.
As well as sparking international outrage, it has stirred criticism from within the movement, with some senior officials in the Kabul government and many rank-and-file members against the decision.
In deeply conservative and patriarchal Afghanistan, attitudes to girls’ education have been slowly changing in rural areas, where the advantages are being recognized.
