KABUL
\nThe founder of a project that campaigned for girls\u2019 education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brothers and the United Nations said Tuesday.
\nThe Taliban government barred girls from attending secondary school and then university last year, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to issue such restrictions on education.
\nMatiullah Wesa, the head of PenPath, was stopped by men outside a mosque after prayers on Monday evening, his brother Samiullah Wesa told AFP.
\n\u201cWhen Matiullah asked for their identity cards, they beat him and forcefully took him away,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cHe has been arrested for his activities in the education sector. He never worked with anybody else, neither with the previous government. He only worked for PenPath.\u201d
\nThe UN mission in Afghanistan confirmed on Twitter that Matiullah had been arrested.
\nTaliban officials have so far not responded to requests for comment.
\nSamiullah Wesa and another brother, Wali Mohammad, were also arrested later on Tuesday, a fourth brother, Attaullah Wesa, said in a video statement posted on Twitter.
\nThey were \u201ccaught, handcuffed and taken away\u201d, Attaullah Wesa said.
\n\u201cWe condemn this horrific act, this unlawful act … We are people of the pen … we are not going to compromise in our fight,\u201d he said, adding that authorities were also looking for him.
\nPenPath campaigns for schools and distributes books in rural areas. It has long dedicated itself to communicating the importance of girls\u2019 education to elders in villages, where attitudes have been slowly changing.
\n\u2018Gender persecution\u2019
\nSince the ban on secondary schools for girls, Matiullah Wesa has continued visiting remote areas to drum up support from locals.
\n\u201cMen, women, elderly, young, everyone from every corner of the country are asking for the Islamic rights to education of their daughters,\u201d he said in a tweet hours before his arrest.
\nHe vowed last week, as the new school year started without teenage girls, to continue his campaign.
\n\u201cThe damage that closure of schools causes is irreversible and undeniable. We held meetings with locals and we will continue our protest if the schools remain closed,\u201d Matiullah Wesa tweeted.
\nThe Taliban government have imposed an austere interpretation of Islam since storming back to power in August 2021 after the withdrawal of the US and NATO forces that backed the previous governments.
\nTaliban leaders have repeatedly claimed they will reopen schools for girls once certain conditions have been met.
\nThey say they lack the funds and time to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines.
\nTaliban authorities made similar assurances during their first stint in power, from 1996 to 2001, but girls\u2019 schools never opened in those five years.
\nThe UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said in a recent speech in Geneva the Taliban authorities\u2019 policy was to \u201crepudiate the human rights of women and girls\u201d in Afghanistan.
\n\u201cIt may amount to the crime of gender persecution, for which the authorities can be held accountable,\u201d Bennett said.
\n\u2018Raise your voice\u2019
\nThe order against girls\u2019 education is believed to have been made by Afghanistan\u2019s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his ultra-conservative aides, who are deeply sceptical of modern education — especially for women.
\nIt has stirred criticism from within the movement as well as sparking international outrage, with some senior officials in the Kabul government as well as many rank-and-file members against the decision. Matiullah Wesa is the second leading educator to be arrested in recent months for campaigning for girls\u2019 education.
\nAuthorities detained veteran journalism lecturer Ismail Mashal in February after Afghan media showed him carting books around Kabul and offering them to passersby. It followed a live appearance on television in which he tore up his degree certificates to condemn the Taliban government\u2019s restrictions on women\u2019s right to work and education.
\nBennett, the UN special rapporteur, expressed alarm at Matiullah Wesa\u2019s arrest: \u201cHis safety is paramount & all his legal rights must be respected.\u201d Rights group Amnesty International called for his release. \u201cSince taking power in August 2021, the Taliban as de facto authorities have arbitrarily arrested, detained and tortured people who peacefully demanded protection of their rights,\u201d Amnesty said on Twitter.
\nPashtana Zalmai Khan Durrani, the head of Afghan non-profit education provider Learn, said: \u201cRaise your voice for him,\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL The founder of a project that campaigned for girls\u2019 education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brothers and the United Nations said Tuesday. The Taliban government barred girls from attending secondary school and then university last year, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to issue such restrictions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-322449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n