The Taliban government in Afghanistan released a nationally known education activist Thursday after nearly seven months in prison.
Matiullah Wesa, founder of PenPath, a community-based education support network, was picked up at gunpoint in Kabul in March for alleged "suspicious activities." His house was raided by de facto Afghan authorities.
"Matiullah Wesa was released today after spending 215 days in prison," PenPath confirmed through the X social media platform.
Taliban officials did not immediately comment on the activist's release. His arrest outraged the international community and drew widespread calls for the Taliban to free him.
"I welcome the release of Matiullah Wesa and call 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," Richard Bennett, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of Afghan human rights, wrote on X.
Amnesty International hailed Wesa's release as "good news from Afghanistan" and said on X that he "should never have been jailed for promoting girls' right to education."
The rights group urged the Taliban to release other detained Afghan human rights defenders, identifying them as Rasool Parsi, Neda Parwani, Zholia Parsi and Manizha Sediqi, saying they "are unfairly kept behind bars for standing up for equality and denouncing repression."
After the Taliban closed schools for teenage girls beyond the sixth grade in Afghanistan last year, Wesa kept visiting provinces to advocate for female education through his organization before being arrested.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid suggested that the activist was detained and interrogated for activities unrelated to his work.
Mujahid alleged that Wesa "had secret and open meetings without informing the [Taliban] government. He also had connections abroad and was getting instructions from abroad."
Wesa’s brother rejected Mujahid's allegations, saying that PenPath's activities and meetings with foreign partners were public.
Wesa's release came just days after the London-based nonprofit Index on Censorship declared him the winner of this year's campaign award in recognition of his advocacy for education for women even after the Taliban reclaimed control of Afghanistan two years ago.
Through his PenPath network, established in 2009, Wesa has promoted education and negotiated with village elders in conservative Afghan society to allow their girls to attend school. The network has equipped hundreds of thousands of children with pens and books and set up libraries in rural Afghanistan. Wesa would set out on a motorbike, using it as a mobile classroom with a computer screen, speakers and a bookcase.
The hard-line Taliban returned to power in August 2021 as the United States and its Western coalition partners withdrew their troops from Afghanistan after almost two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.
Since then, the male-only Taliban government has placed an indefinite ban on girls' education, ordered most female government employees to stay home and barred the U.N. and nongovernmental aid groups from employing Afghan women.
Taliban leaders have rejected international calls for them to remove restrictions on women and respect civil liberties before seeking formal recognition for their rule in Kabul. They have ruled out any compromise on their governance, saying it is aligned with Afghan culture and Islamic law.
