Taliban free Afghan educator who protested women´s university ban: aide

KABUL: Afghanistan´s Taliban authorities have freed a detained academic, his aide told AFP on Monday, months after he used a television appearance to protest the ban on women´s university education.

In December, veteran journalism lecturer Ismail Mashal tore up his degree certificates on live TV and denounced the Taliban´s treatment of women in a clip that went viral in Afghanistan. He was detained in February after domestic channels showed him carting books around Kabul and offering them to passersby.

Mashal was released on Sunday after more than a month in detention, aide Farid Fazli said. “I can confirm that he was released yesterday. He is fine and in good health,” Fazli told AFP. “However, he is not in a condition to talk at the moment.”