Afghan girls’ education advocate in Taliban custody

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have detained a prominent advocate for girl’s education and accused him of carrying out illegal activities.

The founder and head of PenPath, a community-based education support network, Matiullah Wesa was detained by the Taliban members after he stepped out of a Mosque in Kabul, the capital city. The Wesa has been arrested by the Taliban members at gunpoint and taken to an unknown place.

Wesa’s brother, Attaullah Wesa also appeared in a video shared in twitter that the Taliban forces had raided their home and forcefully took away their two other brothers along with cell phones and other material. However, the two were later released, but Wesa is still in custody.

Wesa’s brother said he is sharing this message from an undisclosed location to avoid arrest, and he also accused the Taliban of mistreating his mother and other family members.

The PenPath was founded with the sole aim to campaign for reopening schools and distributing books in rural areas, and since Taliban return, Wesa had all time pushed for girl’s education and dedicated himself to communicate the importance of girls’ education to village elders.

Since August 2021 that Taliban had put a ban on secondary schools for girls, Wesa has posted several videos on twitter and other social platforms from his continued visit to the remote areas to drum up support from locals.

Men and women ask for rights to education

“Men, women, elderly, young, everyone from every corner of the country are asking for the Islamic rights to education for their daughters. Penpath female volunteers call for girls’ education and their rights to education,” this is PenPath’s tweet on March 27.

We have been volunteering for 14 years to reach people and convey the message for girls education, it furthered, adding during the past 18 months we campaigned house to house in order to eliminate illiteracy and to end all our miseries.

On March 24, PenPath workers had voluntarily traveled to 24 districts across the country to speak to elders and locals and discuss girls’ schools and to share advice and solutions. “The whole nation is supporting the fact that girls need to go to school and their school to open without any delay. This is everyone’s wish,” PenPath said in its door to door education campaign.

On March 21, PenPath said that they are counting hours, minutes and seconds for the opening of girls’ schools. “The 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,” it said.

In such hopeless situation, while girls schools are closed and facing many challenges Penpath succeeded to provide opportunities for 5180 girls to study online and home and through mobile school during the past one and half years, Wesa tweeted in March 14.

In one of the video clips, the detained Wesa briefed the local people and said “We spoke to locals and discussed that the only way to eliminate violence is through education. We should work for girl’s education to improve our life and we can compete with other nations.”

“We held meetings with locals and we will continue our protest if the schools remain closed.” Wesa tweeted.

Reactions to Wesa’s detention

There were several reactions by Afghan and foreign officials on the arrest of Wesa, and many labeled him “brave champion” who is advocating for the rights of education for all in Afghanistan.

Many people called on the Taliban to release him and the women must regain their rights to education and work.

Former President Hamid Karzai in a tweet expressed his disappointment at the arrest of Wesa by the Taliban. “Since 2009, Wesa and Pen Path have conducted appreciable activities for education across the country,” Karzai said, calling on the Taliban to release him in immediate time and instead work with him to expand education.

Meanwhile, EU special envoy Tomas Niklasson in a tweet said he is “deeply troubled” by the arrest of PenPath founder Matiullah Wesa by the Taliban. “Mr. Wesa has been advocating for access to education for Afghan boys and girls throughout the country since 2009, in dialogue with local communities,” he said.

“No one should be detained for speaking out in defense of their fundamental rights and the rights of others,” OHCHR Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said in a statement.

Laurence also called on the Taliban to immediately release activists detained for advocating for women’s rights.

Many experts say Wesa was aware that Taliban are opposing girls’ education and one day they will come for him and this could happen. However, Wesa never stepped back and decided to openly fight for girls rights and continued to campaign in public and also shared it on social media platforms.

His campaign was not like to hide behind his privileges and the Taliban must release him.

Wesa opens school in Kandahar in 2004

Wesa and his brother opened a school in Kandahar for the first time in 2004. It is not like they started a campaign for equal education when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. They have been fighting for girls rights since 2004, but the Taliban made it personnel. The Taliban already accused Wesa of doing illegal work in the pretext of a campaign.

Since the beginning of the journey, Wesa was known for finding local solutions to the local problems in various communities.

Reports also suggest that in the past 19 months under the Taliban rule, the Wesa under PenPath was able to reopen over 100 schools for girls in different provinces. These developments were made through mediation of the local tribal elders.

It is worth mentioning that the PenPath has 3,100 volunteer members and the founder Wesa, 31, has graduated from Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi.

Commenting on Wesa’s arrest, the Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that he was arrested for his “illegal activities and provocative gatherings.”

Wesa will be released after an investigation is done, but prevented from providing further details and real cause behind his arrest.

Meanwhile, Taliban’s Head of Publications in the Ministry of Information and Culture, Abdulhaq Hamad in a tweet said that Wesa’s arrest that earned widespread reactions shows that “a major plot has been prevented,” with his arrest.

Hamad expressed unawareness of Wesa’s case but said that he was engaged in “suspicious” activities and said the government has full right to summon anyone for explanation.