War on Education: Taliban detains prominent literacy activist

topic:	Child rights
located:	Afghanistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

Matiullah Wesa, an acclaimed advocate of education and literacy in Afghanistan, has been arrested by the Taliban authorities due to his defiance of the regime’s crackdown on girls’ education.

Wesa and other activists from his ‘Da Qalam Laar’ (Pen Path) organisation launched a door-to-door campaign to promote girls' education. His unique way of reaching the poorest populations in remote corners of Afghanistan for his literacy awareness drive made him stand out in the repressed country.

Wesa’s method was very unique; he toured with mobile libraries and schools around the remote villages to reach young boys and girls. Wesa would also sit on the ground with the local elders for hours to convince them about the virtues of education for children.

“We need to educate everyone; boys and girls, to be able to survive and progress out of these villages […] send your boys and girls to schools,” he told elders in one of his meetings in the southern Helmand province.

He continued to push for his cause even after the fall of democracy in Afghanistan and the re-establishment of the Taliban’s hardline Islamic Emirate that saw an array of donor-funded literacy programs shut down.

Wesa’s most recent tweets about female education coincided with the start of the new academic year in Afghanistan, when girls remained shut out of classrooms and campuses. "We have been volunteering for 14 years to reach people and convey the message for girls' education," Wesa said in one of his recent posts.

On Monday, 27 March reports emerged from the capital Kabul that the Taliban’s secret police stormed his residence and abducted the education activist. Without a word or official notice from the authorities for over 24 hours, fears arose about Wesa’s safety. It was only following a robust protest and pressure from international rights institutions and local figures that the Taliban admitted to having detained him.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed confirmed to the local Pashto service of the BBC that Matiullah Wesa had been detained for "self-serving activities and anti-establishment motivations." A number of Taliban leaders have pointed to Mr Wesa's meetings with Western officials and rights advocates as proof of his motives. Local reports revealed that Taliban security forces detained Wesa after he returned from a trip to Europe.

The move to dishonour and detain such a person amounts to an undeclared ‘war on education’ by the hardline regime in Kabul. The list of the group’s actions in this regard is long with brazen acts like shutting girls’ schools, banning women and girls from universities, eliminating women from the public offices and private sector, among others.

The excuses presented for his extrajudicial arrest by the Taliban are equally bizarre. As an independent human being, he has a fundamental right to strive for the welfare of his community through public mobilisation and other methods of activism.

The Taliban cannot and must not hold the country and its people in complete isolation.

Most importantly, the Taliban has already lost its religious argument for this ‘war on education’ as important Islamic institutions and Muslim countries have joined the growing calls against their policies. The ‘war on education’ in Afghanistan must end and activists like Wesa must be allowed to continue their promotion of literacy for all.

Image by Wanman Uthmaniyyah

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