On December 1, 2024, Taliban guards beat and detained Hassamuddin Rahimzai, a professor in the Faculty of Islamic Jurisprudence at Sheikh Zayed University, after he objected to the process for evaluating faculty members.

The incident occurred during the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education evaluations for faculty members affiliated with the Islamic jurisprudence faculties at the country’s public universities. The review is taking place as the Taliban seeks to replace existing faculty members with madrasa graduates.

On December 1, a designated committee began evaluating Sheikh Zayed University’s faculty at the office of Khost governor Abdul Qayum Rohani. During the evaluation, Rahimzai criticized the process, leading Governor Rohani’s guards to beat him so severely that he lost consciousness. After his beating, the guard detained Rahimzai in the governor’s personal detention facility, where he was reportedly also tortured.

Scholars at Risk is concerned by the arbitrary imprisonment and ill treatment of a faculty member in retaliation for his expressed opposition to a faculty evaluation process. State authorities have a responsibility to refrain from arbitrary arrests and prosecution of scholars and students for exercising their right to freedom of expression. In addition, Scholars at Risk is concerned about ideologically driven, government encroachments on universities’ authority to set policies concerning personnel, admissions, curricula, and the establishment of particular programs. Such actions undermine university autonomy and inhibit institutions’ ability to function freely.

Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
https://rudabe.org/archives/20890#google_vignette
https://x.com/Mhalimfidai/status/1863619022480162985