Taliban release a prominent Afghan professor from prison: Family | Taliban Stories
Faizullah Jalal had been detained for several days for criticizing the Taliban regime.
The Taliban have released a well-known university professor and outspoken critic of Afghanistan’s successive governments. arrested over the weekend, said one family member.
Hasina Jalal, the daughter of Faizullah Jalal, said Tuesday that her father had been released from Taliban prison. The mob accused him of making accusations against the government.
Jalal was arrested Sunday by a Taliban intelligence group.
“After more than four days in jail on trivial charges, I confirm that Professor Jalal has been released,” Hasina wrote on Twitter, launching a campaign to demand his immediate release.
After more than four days in jail on trivial charges, I confirm that Professor Jalal has now been released! @BBCYaldaHakim @LinaRozbih @Samiullah_mahdi MunazaShaheed @EjazMalikzada @ AnisaShaheed1 @Wayand_ @ MsSharif1990 @emmaclark SuneEngel @Samiullah_mahdi
– Hasina Jalal (@HasinaJalal) January 11, 2022
A former professor of law and politics at Kabul University, Jalal has been known to criticize Afghan leaders over the past few decades.
Jalal has appeared several times in television interviews since the US-backed government was ousted in August, blaming the Taliban for the economic crisis and criticizing them for their coercive rule.
In a video presentation, he called Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem “the calf”, a major insult in Afghanistan. Pictures of his criticism spread online.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had earlier tweeted that Jalal had made headlines in the media as “trying to persuade people not to agree with the plan”.
“She’s been arrested for not speaking out against the same idiosyncrasies … which tarnish the image of others,” she added.
The Jalal family said the tweets shared by Mujahid came from a fake Twitter account that they tried to block.
“The Taliban are just using this as an excuse to suppress powerful voices in the country,” Hasina, a colleague at Georgetown University in Washington DC, told AFP after his arrest.
After his arrest, he received a lot of help on television, with many users sending pictures of Jalal. A small group of women staged a protest in Kabul, demanding their release.
In the late 50’s, an Afghan professor refused to leave the country after capturing the Taliban, living in hiding in Kabul while his family fled to Europe, Hasina said, according to AFP.
The Taliban seizure of authority Afghanistan in August ended before a U.S. uprising on August 31 after nearly 20 years of war. The group gained power from 1996-2001.
Afghanistan faces a a major humanitarian crisis, the United Nations warns that 90 percent of the country’s 38 million people live in extreme poverty. The arrest of a political activist threatened to disrupt humanitarian action.
