OUTSPOKEN

Afghan Education Activist ‘Mercilessly Beaten’ by Taliban After TV Stunt

Ismail Mashal tore up his degrees on live television to protest restrictions prohibiting women from accessing higher education.

Taliban authorities detained a prominent Afghan advocate for women’s education while he was giving out free books in Kabul on Thursday. Ismail Mashal, a journalism professor who ran a private, co-ed university in the capital, went viral after tearing up his degrees on live TV to protest the government’s December decision to deny female students access to higher education. “From today, I don’t need these diplomas anymore because this country is no place for an education. If my sister and my mother can’t study, then I don’t accept this education,” Mashal said. He was “mercilessly beaten” during his arrest, an aide and multiple eyewitnesses told AFP, though a Taliban spokesperson has said he is being treated well in custody. When the Taliban regained power in August 2021, it promised to respect women’s access to education but it has gradually imposed a series of hardline restrictions barring women from public life in recent months.