I set up a free school for Afghan girls – and the Taliban blindfolded me and broke my nose and jaw

When Basir Arian was summoned to the Taliban headquarters, he knew he had to go. To defy them meant death. The torture left him devastated and sure he had to leave the country ‘I knew that sooner or later, they would come for me,” says Basir Arian.

After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, he had set up an online English study programme for girls when they were banned from attending school. In May 2022, he was eating lunch in the western city of Herat, when he got a call from an unfamiliar local number. A Talib official told Arian to come to the intelligence directorate within 20 minutes and…