KABUL – A prominent Afghan campaigner for female education has been arrested by the Taliban, even as teenage girls and women remain barred from classrooms.
Matiullah Wesa, 30, who has travelled to remote parts of the country trying to improve access to education for all children, has often received threats.
The Taliban has not said why Wesa was taken into custody.
His arrest comes amid the detention of a number of activists who have been campaigning for women’s education.
In February Prof. Ismail Mashal, an outspoken critic of the ban on education for women, was arrested in Kabul while handing out free books. He was freed on March 5 but has not spoken out since then.
Wesa has been campaigning for girls’ right to study since the Taliban barred female education in 2021.
His last tweet – on Monday, a day before his arrest – was a photo of women volunteers for Pen Path “asking for the Islamic rights to education for their daughters”. (BBC)
