Pakistani Nobel laurete Malala Yousafzai has urged the Afghan Taliban to release Matiullah Wesa, an education activist detained recently in Kabul for his activism supporting girls’ education.
The detention of Wesa, who had been running mobile schools and libraries in Afghanistan to educate boys and girls, has alarmed Malala, who slated the Taliban for curbs on girls’ education and their arrest of education champions like Wesa.
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The outspoken education advocate, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012, spoke out against Wesa’s arrest, calling it an assault on education. Malala’s call to release Wesa highlights the ongoing struggle for the right to education in Afghanistan, particularly for girls and young women in the face of Taliban rule.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Malala criticized the Taliban’s government restrictions on girls’ education and their arrest of Wesa. She urged the Taliban to release him and all those who had been imprisoned for educating children.
According to Matiullah’s brother, the education activist had been receiving threats for some time due to his activities for Afghan girls and women’s education under his organization, PenPath. His home was reportedly raided during his arrest, although the government hasn’t provided details on the incident.
Matiullah was one of the most eminent activists in Afghanistan, campaigning for girls’ and women’s rights to study since the Taliban locked female education in 2021. On the day of his arrest, he had tweeted an image of women volunteers for PenPath asking for Islamic rights to education for their daughters.
