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01-04-2023
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report
KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: On the fifth day of the holy month of Ramadan, Matiullah Wesa, an advocate for girls’ and women’s education in Afghanistan, went to a neighborhood mosque in Kabul for asr (evening) prayers. As the 30-year-old left the mosque with his younger brother, Samiullah, he was surrounded by a group of armed men who said they were from the General Directorate of Intelligence, the Taliban’s intelligence unit.
“When my brother Samiullah asked them for their IDs, they showed their weapons instead and took (Matiullah) away,” Attaullah Wesa, Matiullah’s elder brother, told media. The following morning, 24-year-old Samiullah was also detained, along with another brother, Wali Mohammad, 39, when members of Taliban security raided their home in Kabul. Attaullah evaded arrest as he went into hiding.
“They beat my brothers and also took our devices, such as phones and laptops,” said Attaullah, 37, from an undisclosed location. Matiullah’s arrest on Monday has alarmed activists. The United Nations has called on Taliban authorities to make his whereabouts public and allow him access to legal representation.
“We are alarmed by the ongoing arbitrary arrests and detentions of civil society activists and media workers in Afghanistan, in particular the targeting of those who speak out against the de facto authorities’ discriminatory policies restricting women and girls’ access to education, work and most other areas of public and daily life,” 
Jeremy Laurence, the UN Human Rights spokesperson, said in a statement on Wednesday. Matiullah has been a critic of the Taliban’s restrictions on education for girls and women and has repeatedly called for the ban on their education to be reversed.
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, high schools for girls remain shut, and in December, universities were made out of bounds for women as part of the group’s clampdown on women’s rights.
“We knew something like this would happen sooner or later,” Attaullah said, referring to Matiullah’s arrest. “If you are struggling for the fundamental rights of the people, such a consequence is possible.”
Matiullah has been the face of an education organization called Pen Path, set up by the Wesa brothers in 2009 to improve and promote education access across Afghanistan, including in remote areas affected by decades of conflict.
The Wesa siblings would travel on motorbikes to the remotest parts of the war-torn country, taking mobile libraries with them, distributing books and campaigning about the importance of education.
Their arrests, which are seen as being part of a crackdown on dissenting voices, have provoked criticism from Afghans and the international community.
“The Taliban first started with abusing, abducting and detaining women protesters,” said Sahar Fetrat, Afghan researcher with the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. “Now they have started to intimidate and abuse men for joining peaceful activism.”
“The Taliban fear Afghan men and women standing together and fighting for a better Afghanistan,” she told media. The Wesa brothers are only the latest in a series of arrests made by the Taliban targeting civil society activists and protesters who have spoken out against the closure of high schools and universities for girls and women in the country.
While the Taliban has not commented on any of the other detentions, senior Taliban leader and spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid did address Matiullah Wesa’s case. He told local media that Matiullah had been arrested for organizing meetings and instigating the public against the Taliban system.
