Taliban Arrest Poet, Magazine Editor, Family Members Say

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities on Thursday detained an Afghan poet, Izatullah Zawab, who serves as the top of Meena (Love) journal in jap Afghanistan, as a part of an ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression and unbiased media within the nation, members of the family posted on social media.

The members of the family stated Zawab was apprehended by the Taliban whereas touring from the capital, Kabul, to jap Nangarhar province.

In a social media publish, Zawab’s sons, Attullah Zawab and Nusrat Arman, stated the Taliban authorities didn’t reveal why their father was detained however assured them of his well-being and imminent launch.

The brothers requested different social media customers to delete posts associated to the arrest. In response, some Fb customers urged them to not take away the posts till Zawab’s launch.

Taliban authorities haven’t supplied any official assertion relating to the detention, solely telling members of the family that he’s detained ‘in reference to a problem’ with out additional particulars.

Zawab is famend for his crucial poetry, which some social media customers speculate could have contributed to his arrest. He had confronted earlier arrests and imprisonment throughout the former Afghan authorities due to his crucial poetry. Zawab has been crucial of mullahs, the mujaheddins and what he known as corrupt officers of the nation with out naming anybody.

Zawab serves because the editor of Meena (Love) journal revealed in jap Afghanistan and owns a bookstore in Kabul.

Since regaining energy in August 2021, the Taliban suspended Afghanistan’s structure and revoked most legal guidelines carried out over the previous 20 years. In line with the Afghanistan Journalist Heart, the Taliban arrested 61 journalists in 2023.

Whereas some have been launched after weeks or months of detention, others obtained prolonged jail sentences.

Up to now 12 months, the middle documented 168 circumstances of violence and intimidation in opposition to journalists, highlighting the in depth censorship exercised by the authoritarian rulers over the media.