The founding father of a venture that campaigned for ladies’ training in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the United Nations mentioned Tuesday.
The Taliban authorities final yr barred women from attending secondary college and later college, making Afghanistan the one nation on the earth to challenge such restrictions on training.
Matiullah Wesa, the top of PenPath was stopped by males outdoors a mosque after prayers on Monday night, his brother Samiullah Wesa instructed AFP.
“When Matiullah requested for his or her identification playing cards, they beat him and forcefully took him away,” he mentioned.
“He has been arrested for his actions within the training sector. He by no means labored with anyone else, neither with the earlier authorities. He solely labored for PenPath.”
The UN mission in Afghanistan confirmed in a tweet that Matiullah had been arrested.
Taliban officers have thus far not responded to requests for remark.
PenPath campaigns for colleges and distributes books in rural areas, and has lengthy devoted itself to speaking the significance of women’ training to elders in villages, the place attitudes have been slowly altering.
For the reason that ban on secondary colleges for ladies, Wesa has continued visiting distant areas to drum up assist from locals.
“Males, girls, aged, younger, everybody from each nook of the nation are asking for the Islamic rights to training of their daughters,” he mentioned in a tweet, hours earlier than he was arrested.
Final week, as the brand new college yr began with out teenage women, he vowed to proceed his marketing campaign.
“The injury that closure of colleges causes is irreversible and plain. We held conferences with locals and we’ll proceed our protest if the colleges stay closed,” he tweeted.
Taliban officers have thus far not responded to requests for remark.
– ‘Elevate your voice’ –
The Taliban authorities have imposed an austere interpretation of Islam since storming again to energy in August 2021 after the withdrawal of the US and NATO forces that backed the earlier governments.
Taliban leaders have repeatedly claimed they’ll reopen colleges for ladies as soon as sure circumstances have been met.
They are saying they lack the funds and time to rework the syllabus alongside Islamic strains.
Taliban authorities made comparable assurances throughout their first stint in energy — from 1996 to 2001 — however women’ colleges by no means opened in 5 years.
In a latest speech in Geneva, UN particular rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett mentioned that the Taliban authorities’ coverage was to “repudiate the human rights of ladies and women” in Afghanistan.
“It might quantity to the crime of gender persecution, for which the authorities may be held accountable,” he mentioned.
The order in opposition to women’ training is believed to have been made by Afghanistan’s supreme chief Hibatullah Akhundzada and his ultra-conservative aides, who’re deeply sceptical of recent training — particularly for girls.
In addition to sparking worldwide outrage, it has stirred criticism from inside the motion, with some senior officers within the Kabul authorities in addition to many rank-and-file members in opposition to the choice.
Matiullah is the second main educator to be arrested in latest months for campaigning for ladies’ training.
In February, the authorities detained veteran journalism lecturer, Ismail Mashal, after native media confirmed him carting books round Kabul and providing them to passersby.
It adopted a stay look on tv by which he tore up his diploma certificates to sentence the Taliban authorities’s restrictions on girls’s proper to work and training.
UN particular rapporteur Bennett expressed alarm at Matiullah’s arrest: “His security is paramount & all his authorized rights have to be revered.”
“Elevate your voice for him,” added Pashtana Zalmai Khan Durrani, the top of Afghan non-profit training supplier Study.
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