Ismail Mashal

Ismail Mashal (Pashto and ; born ) is an Afghan educator and former journalist who received international press attention in 2022 due to his public criticisms of the Taliban's decision to ban education for women and girls, which led to him being imprisoned in February 2023.

Career and personal life Mashal had worked as a professor for ten years at the time of his arrest in 2023, including at three different academic institutions, including the University of Mysore in India, where he also studied; and most recently at his own private co-educational university in Kabul. By the time the Taliban announced that women would be prohibited from attending university in December 2022, Mashal's university had 450 female students studying subjects including computer science, economics, engineering, and journalism.

Mashal lives in Kabul with his mother, wife, and daughter. Mashal believed that forbidding education for women would lead to an increase in crime, as well as poverty, among Afghan citizens.

Arrest and response On 2 February 2023, Mashal was arrested while distributing books in the Deh Bori settlement in District 3 of Kabul.

Eyewitnesses, including Mashal's assistant Farid Fazli, reported that Mashal was physically assaulted by Taliban security forces during his arrest. Abdul Haq Hammad, from the Ministry of Information and Culture, confirmed that Mashal had been arrested due to his "provocative actions" by inviting journalists to watch him handing out books on a main road, causing "chaos" and "creating propaganda against the government"; he dismissed claims that Mashal had been assaulted, stating that Mashal had been treated well during his detainment. It was reported that Mashal's family and friends had not been informed of his location after his arrest. On 14 February 2023, Mashal's family reported that they had still been given no information from the Taliban about his whereabouts.

Release Mashal was released from custody on 5 March 2023, according to a statement given by an aide Farid Fazli to Agence France-Presse. Fazli said that Mashal was "fine and in good health" but was not "in a condition to talk at the moment".