Taliban intelligence forces in Afghanistan's Takhar province have detained poet and schoolteacher Muzhda Uzbek, accusing her of writing poems that criticize the policies of the current authorities. According to Afghan media, she has been in custody since late September.
The detention was reported by Rukhshana Media and Afghanistan International, citing their own sources in the province. According to those sources, Uzbek was detained together with her husband in the Khwaja Ghar district and then taken to the provincial capital, Taloqan. Her husband was later released after giving guarantees, but she remains behind bars.
The sources also claim that the arrest was prompted not only by poems criticizing Taliban policy but also by her alleged ties to Rahila Dostum, a former member of the upper house of Afghanistan's parliament and the daughter of Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the Uzbek National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan.
Rahila Dostum publicly condemned the poet's detention, calling it alarming and unjustified. She urged the authorities to release Uzbek, saying that poetry and thoughts should not be treated as a crime.
Uzbek is a member of Afghanistan's Uzbek minority, a poet, a writer and a mother of five. As reported, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada banned protest and love poetry last year.
Taliban officials in Takhar province have not publicly commented on the detention. Information about any formal charges against the woman, her current condition and where she is being held remains limited.
