The Taliban has arrested a prominent Afghan campaigner for female education as teenage girls and women remain barred from schools.
The Taliban arrested 30-year-old Matiullah Wesa who has spent years traveling across Afghanistan trying to improve access to education for all children.
The Taliban did not say why Wesa is in custody and BBC reported that his house was also raided.
Wesa's arrest follows the detention of a number of other activists who have been campaigning for women's education.
In February Prof Ismail Mashal, an outspoken critic of the Taliban government's ban on education for women was arrested in Kabul while handing out free books.
He was freed on 5 March but has not spoken out since then Wesa is one of the most prominent education activists in Afghanistan and, via his charity PenPath, has been campaigning for girls' right to study since the Taliban barred female education in 2021.
There was a brief spell of hope following an announcement in March 2022 that girls would be allowed to attend secondary schools.
But tearful schoolgirls were turned away after the Taliban leadership overturned the decision.
They said girls would be allowed to return to school after "a comprehensive plan has been prepared according to Sharia and Afghan culture". But in December 2022, female students were also barred from universities.
The Taliban say schools and universities are only temporarily closed to women and girls until a "suitable environment" can be created.
