Wesa, who traveled the country to advocate for girls’ access to education, was released after seven months in prison.
An Afghan activist who campaigned for the inclusion of girls in education has been released by Taliban authorities after seven months in detention.
Matiullah Wesa, who traveled the country to advocate for girls’ access to education, was arrested in March for “propaganda against the government.”
He was released on Thursday and was “on his way home,” his brother told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
A spokesman for the Taliban government confirmed Wesa’s release.
The top UN expert on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, welcomed Wesa’s release but noted the plight of hundreds of other activists targeted by the Taliban.
“I welcome the release of Matiullah Wesa and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all #Afghanistan human rights defenders who are being arbitrarily detained for standing up for their own rights and the human rights of others,” he wrote on the social media platform X , formerly known as Twitter.
I welcome the release of Matiullah Wesa and call for the immediate and unconditional release of everyone #Afghanistan Human rights defenders who are arbitrarily detained for advocating for their own rights and the human rights of others. #ZhuliaParsi #NedaParwani #RasoulAbdi https://t.co/o4yALElJXW
— UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett (@SR_Afghanistan) October 26, 2023
For more than a decade, Wesa, the founder of the nonprofit Pen Path, made it his mission to promote access to education by visiting rural villages to revitalize schools closed by violence and opening libraries.
Wesa vowed to continue those efforts after the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021 and enforced strict restrictions on girls and women, including banning schools, parks and gyms and forcing them out of government jobs.
Crackdown on activism
Wesa’s arrest sparked protests at the United Nations and international human rights groups, which warned that the Taliban was increasingly cracking down on “peaceful activism” in support of women’s freedoms.
“The Taliban initially began abusing, abducting and detaining female protesters,” Sahar Fetrat, Afghan researcher in the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera at the time. “Now they have begun to intimidate and abuse men for engaging in peaceful activism.”
“The Taliban fear that Afghan men and women will stand together and fight for a better Afghanistan,” Fetrat said.
Afghanistan ranked last out of 177 countries in a report released Tuesday by the Georgetown Institute for Peace, Women and Security that assesses the inclusion, equity and security of women in society.
Erosion of press freedom
Wesa’s release comes shortly after the release of another prominent detainee – French-Afghan journalist Mortaza Behboudi.
Behboudi, who spent nine months in prison on suspicion of espionage for “illegally supporting foreigners,” lamented the deteriorating climate for journalists in Afghanistan.
“Everything is censored these days,” Behboudi said. “If I take a photo on the street, I risk being arrested. … There is no longer any freedom of expression. There is no longer any freedom of the press in Afghanistan.”