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Founder of Afghan girls’ school project arrested in Kabul Founder of Afghan girls’ school project arrested in Kabul
(about 5 hours later)
Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path, beaten and arrested outside a mosque after prayers UN calls on Taliban to reveal whereabouts of Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path, taken into detention by gunmen from outside a mosque after prayers
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 have said. A prominent activist for girls’ education has been arrested in Afghanistan, in the latest sign that hardline Taliban authorities are determined to stamp out all opposition to their ban on girls and women attending school or universities.
The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where there is a ban on education. Matiullah Wesa, founder and leader of the Pen Path charity, had been fighting for education for Afghan children who were out of school – both boys and girls – for more than a decade, with a focus on rural areas of southern Afghanistan.
“Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path and advocate for girls’ education, was arrested in Kabul Monday,” the UN mission in Afghanistan tweeted on Tuesday. Top diplomats and human rights groups, including a senior UN envoy and Amnesty International, called for his immediate release.
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 AFP. “When Matiullah asked for their identity cards, they beat him and forcefully took him away.” “He could have left Afghanistan, but he stayed despite the risks to work for his people, advocating for education rights for girls,” said Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s South Asia campaigner.
Pen Path, the organisation Matiullah 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. Wesa was detained after attending prayers at his local mosque on Friday, his brother, Attaullah Wesa, told the Guardian: “Matiullah was at the mosque in Kabul, offering his prayers. When he stepped out, there were gunmen in two vehicles who ran towards him to arrest him.”
Since the ban on secondary schools for girls, Wesa has continued visiting remote areas to drum up support from local people. “Our elder brother was with Matiullah and they tried to question the men, asked them to show ID, but they showed him their weapons instead and took him away,” he said, adding that the family was very concerned about Matiullah’s safety.
“We are counting hours, minutes and seconds for the opening of girls schools. The damage that closure of schools causes is irreversible and undeniable,” he tweeted 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.” Wesa set up Pen Path with his brother in 2009. At first, they worked with religious scholars and tribal elders to build community support for educating all children, set up schools in villages where there was no government education, and sent mobile classrooms to the most remote areas.
The Taliban have imposed an austere interpretation of Islam since storming back to power in August 2021 after the withdrawal of US and Nato forces that backed the previous governments. After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and barred female students from high school, and then from primary school and university, he led high-profile calls for classes to restart, sharing photos and videos of protests – usually in private buildings, after harsh crackdowns on public demonstrations.
Taliban leaders, who have also banned women from university, have repeatedly claimed they will reopen schools for girls once certain conditions have been met. They say they lack the funds and time to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines. His message focused on public demand for girls’ schools, and their right to an education under Islamic law. “Men, women, elderly, young, everyone from every corner of the country is asking for the Islamic rights to education for their daughters,” he wrote in one of his last tweets before his arrest.
Taliban authorities made similar assurances during their first stint in power – from 1996 to 2001 – but girls’ schools never opened in five years. On 21 March, the Persian new year which normally marks the start of the school year in Afghanistan, Pen Path launched a new campaign that angered Taliban authorities, Attaullah said.
The order against 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. “It is our basic right – education for all – and they are not happy about it,” he said. The family had been warned that intelligence services were investigating them.
As well as causing 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. Sign up to Her Stage
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“We were informed last month by some of the tribal elders that the Taliban’s intelligence wanted to arrest Matiullah. We talked to them … to help negotiate with the Taliban government to solve this problem they had with our group,” he said.
Attaullah says he is determined to keep Pen Path’s work going, despite Taliban pressure and the threat to their safety. “In our campaigns, we are only asking for the basic rights of our people, what they want. We will not stop our work. They will not stop us,” he said.
The UN called on the Taliban “to clarify (Wesa’s) whereabouts, the reasons for his arrest and to ensure his access to legal representation and contact with family”. The deputy head of the EU mission in Kabul called his detention “shocking” and also demanded his release.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world to bar girls and young women from education because of their sex, with the ban thought to be a personal order from the Taliban’s reclusive and ultra-conservative supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The group claims it is only a temporary bar, until “Islamic” conditions are met, but critics say that is simply an excuse for a decision which has no religious justification.
The Taliban have refused to detail what the conditions are, or when schools might reopen. A similar de facto ban brought in when they took control of much of Afghanistan in 1996 lasted until they were ousted from power in 2001.
However, there has been criticism of the ruling from within the group’s own ranks. Many senior Taliban have been educating their own daughters secretly, in Afghanistan or abroad, and a few have even publicly criticised the ban.
The Taliban did not respond to requests for comment.