(FILES) In this photograph taken on May 17, 2022, Matiullah Wesa, head of PenPath and advocate for girls’ education in Afghanistan, speaks to children during a class next to his mobile library in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar Province.
| Photo Credit: AFP
An Afghan activist who campaigned for girls’ access to education was released from detention on Thursday, more than seven months after he was arrested by Taliban authorities, his family said.
Matiullah Wesa, the founder of the non-profit organisation PenPath, “has been released” and “is on his way back home”, his brother Attaullah Wesa told AFP, adding that he did not yet have information on his brother’s physical health.
Matiullah was arrested in March this year “for his activities in the education sector”, his brother said at the time.
PenPath has for more than a decade dedicated itself to communicating the importance of education to elders in rural villages, helping to reopen schools for girls and boys closed because of violence, and establishing libraries.
Since seizing power in August 2021, Afghanistan’s Taliban government has imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law on the country, largely excluding women from public life.
Teenage girls and women are barred from schools and universities. Thousands of women have lost their government jobs — or are being paid to stay at home.
Girls and women are also prohibited from entering parks, funfairs or gyms.
Since the ban on secondary schools for girls, Matiullah had continued visiting remote areas to gather support from locals and vowed to continue his campaign.
Attaullah said his brother was sentenced to seven months in jail for “carrying out propaganda against the government, but it was not clarified what that propaganda was”.
“I don’t know how to react, I have barely slept or eaten since yesterday because I was following his case,” he said.
The arrest sparked an outcry from the United Nations and international rights groups.
The UN’s top expert on rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett welcomed Wesa’s release.
In a social media post, he called “for the immediate & unconditional release of all Afghanistan human rights defenders who are arbitrarily detained for standing up for their own rights & the human rights of others”.
Matiullah is the latest detainee to be released in recent weeks.
Afghan-French journalist Mortaza Behboudi, who had spent 284 days in jail in Afghanistan, was released earlier this month.
