KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Taliban intelligence agents have arrested Mawlavi Abdul Aziz Shuja, a religious scholar who had publicly criticized the group’s ban on girls’ education, in Kabul.
A relative told KabulNow that Shuja was summoned by Taliban intelligence via a phone call around 10:00 AM on Tuesday, January 28. He went to their office and never returned home.
The source believes his arrest was directly linked to his criticism of the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s and girls’ education.
Shuja had spoken at a press conference in Kabul a day before his arrest, addressing issues of peace and inclusivity alongside other religious scholars. During his speech, he stressed that Quranic teachings are not exclusive to men and that God did not command only men to seek knowledge.
Taliban intelligence has also arrested two other clerics, Mawlavi Abdul Qadir Qanit and Mawlavi Mahmood Hassan. Both had used the same conference to criticize the Taliban’s leadership in Kandahar for consolidating power.
Since reclaiming control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has maintained absolute authority over the group’s political, military, judicial, and religious affairs. A staunch conservative from the Noorzai tribe, Akhundzada rules from Kandahar, avoiding public appearances and foreign engagement.
The Taliban have repeatedly detained and imprisoned their critics. Rights groups accuse the regime of using arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances as tools to silence dissent against its hardline policies.
