Afghan Biographies

Wesa, Matiullah


Name Wesa, Matiullah
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1992
Function/Grade Human rights and Education activist
History and Biodata

2. Previous Function:
Founder & President of Pen Path Civil Society. (2009)
3. Biodata:
Matiullah Wesa was born on November 4
th, 1992 in Kandahar province of Afghanistan.
Wesa grew up in Kandahar in the town of Maruf, one of 11 children. His father’s school was one of the first there.

Matiullah and his
family were forced to relocate to Spinboldak in Afghanistan. His school was burnt down and ever since he decided that he would not let anything stand between a child and their right for education.

He is Founder & President of Pen Path Civil Society. Wesa is Education activist and he launched 18 libraries and helping to re-open closed 52 schools in rural and remote areas of Afghanistan. Wesa has collected 130,000 school book and distributed among the children in rural and unsecure areas of Afghanistan. He began the campaign of Motorcycle and Book Distribution with aim to literate community members in rural areas specially elders. Wesa has established three equipped Computer Labs in Kandahar and Uruzgan Province.

Wesa visited 20 of 34 provinces after the Islamic Emirate came into power, providing thousands of students with education resources.  (20220410)

He has a brother Attaullah Wesa who is a co-founder of Pen Path Civil Society founded 2009.

 

Matiullah Wesa, the founder and head of PenPath – a community-based education support network – was picked up outside a mosque in the capital of Kabul after prayers on Monday evening, March 27, 2023. Taliban security forces arrested Wesa “at gunpoint without any reason and drove him away to an unknown place,” his older brother said.
 

In a Pashto language video message on Twitter, Attaullah Wesa said that Taliban authorities had raided their home Tuesday morning March 28, 2023 and forcefully took away their two other brothers along with cell phones and other material. He said he was sharing the message from an undisclosed location to avoid arrest.
 

According to Ataullah Wesa, Matiullah was released on Thursday 26 Oct 2023  afternoon.

The Taliban had apprehended Wesa late in March, and subsequently, they linked his arrest to a series of gatherings he had organized to promote girls’ education.




 

Last Modified 2023-10-26
Established 2022-04-11