By Freshta Ghani
On the evening of Monday, March 27, news circulated on social networks that the Taliban had arrested Matiullah Wesa, the head of Pen Path, an organization that promotes girls’ education in rural areas in southern and eastern Afghanistan. Attaullah Wesa, his brother and another of the founders of Pen Path, confirmed the arrest to Zan Times. “My brother was taken out of a mosque in Kabul at 5 p.m. in the evening on Monday by the Taliban, arrested, and forcibly taken to an unknown place. Since then, we have no information about where my brother is imprisoned,” he says.
In a video posted on Twitter on Tuesday, Attaullah Wesa said the Taliban had surrounded their house and taken away his two other brothers, after beating them. “Our house was under siege from 10 a.m. today. My two brothers, Samiullah and Wali Mohammad, were also arrested by the Taliban. They tied their hands and took them away. The Taliban were rude to my family, mother, and children. Yesterday, they took [our brother] Matiullah and today they forcibly took his cell phones and my other brothers’ cell phones with them,” he said in the video, recorded inside a moving car. He said that the Taliban were also seeking to arrest him, but he emphasized that he and his family will continue their struggle: “We have worked voluntarily for this nation for 15 years and we will not give up our struggle in any way, even if we are killed. We are not giving up this fight. For this nation and Afghanistan, we want a future that is bright with knowledge. This nation has a right over us, we will continue this struggle and stand by our commitment.”
Hours after the video was published, he confirmed to Zan Times that his two brothers, Samiullah and Wali Mohammad, had been released, but that the family still had no information about Matiullah Wisa.
The news of Matiullah Wesa’s arrest prompted widespread domestic and international reaction. Among the institutions and individuals who demanded his immediate and unconditional release are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMA), as well as Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur, and Thomas Nicholson, the European Union’s special representative for Afghanistan.
On Twitter, UNAMA asked the Taliban to announce the reason for Matiullah Wesa’s arrest as well as his current location and to allow him to communicate with his legal representative and family. Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Amu TV that Matiullah Wesa was arrested for holding “provocative,” as well as “arbitrary and illegal meetings.”
It is not clear what Mujahid meant by “illegal” activities, but the day before Matiullah Wesa’s arrest, the activist posted onto Twitter a video showing a group of women and girls chanting, “We want school,” “We want education,” and “We want education for girls and women.” In the tweet, Wesa wrote, “Men, women, old, young, and everyone from every corner of the country are demanding their Islamic rights for the education of their daughters. The female volunteers of Pen Path demand girls’ right to education.”
Wesa’s arrest is the latest in the series of detentions by the Taliban of protestors and civic activists in Kabul. On Sunday, March 26, women in western Kabul protested the second anniversary of the start of a school year in which girls are banned from being educated beyond grade 6. On that day, the Taliban arrested Ruqiya Saee, Fatima Mohammadi, and Malalai Hashemi, all of whom participated in that demonstration.
On Monday, four sources close to the women confirmed to Zan Times that the three women were released on bail that afternoon, but with restrictions on their activities. “They have been filmed, copies of their ID cards, and their fingerprints have been taken, and they have been warned not to engage in any kind of civic and political activity, and not to raise their voice on social media either,” a friend of one of the women tells Zan Times.
Ruqiya Saee confirmed her release in a short message to Zan Times but stated that she was not allowed to give interviews. Saee, a mother of two children who lost her husband three years ago, had been previously arrested in December 2022 during a protest against the closure of universities to women. Then, she spent three days in prison before being released. That detention was hard on her family. “The nights she was in prison, her children suffered a lot, they cried all night and wanted their mother,” a close friend of Saee tells Zan Times.
Although Saee, Mohammadi and Hashemi were released, another female activist, Nargis Sadat, an organizer of the Afghan Women’s Movement, is still detained by the Taliban. There is no information about her condition. When Zan Times tried to speak to her relatives, they declined, saying that they were not allowed to speak to the media. Munisa Mubariz, a women’s rights activist, confirms to Zan Times that they have information that Nargis Sadat is imprisoned in the Taliban’s 40th intelligence directorate in Kabul. She also says that efforts are underway to secure the release of Nargis Sadat.
