Before being jailed, he snatched up his academic diplomas on live television last December in open protest against the Taliban’s ban on women’s education.
In another television interview he had come to cry in front of the journalist who asked him the reason for that gesture.
The professor Ismail Mashal, of Kabul University had given up teaching after that order took effect, leaving the country alone to fall back on basic and gender rights. He was convinced that “under Islam both men and women have the right to education.”
An official of the Ministry of Information and Culture announced his arrest accusing him of propaganda against the current government for having “gathered journalists around him”.
Mashal was “mercilessly beaten and very disrespectfully taken away by members of the Islamic Emirate” (the official name of the Taliban regime), his aide Farid Ahmad Fazli said.
Ismail Meshaal, a university professor
Professor Ismail Mashal era ended up giving away his books on the streets of Kabul, which made him very popular on social media. “Find me and get a book as a gift” was written on his cart and on his Facebook account and again “Science is a must for men and women”.
