MEA responds after women journalists barred from Taliban foreign minister’s press conference

A diplomatic visit by Afghanistan’s acting Taliban Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, to India has ignited political and gender-rights controversy after female journalists were reportedly barred from attending his press conference in New Delhi on Thursday.

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram expressed shock at the exclusion, suggesting that male journalists should have walked out in solidarity. “I am shocked that women journalists were excluded from the press conference addressed by Mr. Amir Khan Muttaqi of Afghanistan. In my personal view, the male journalists should have walked out when they found that their female colleagues were excluded (or not invited),” he wrote on X.

TMC leader Mahua Moitra also criticized the incident, questioning how External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar allowed what she called “male-only” discrimination on Indian soil. “How dare our government allow Taliban foreign minister Amir Muttaqi to exclude women journalists & hold a ‘male-only’ news conference on Indian soil with full protocol? How dare EAM Jaishankar agree to this?” she posted.

Congress MP Karti P. Chidambaram directly accused the Modi government and the MEA of enabling gender-based exclusion in the name of diplomacy. “I understand the geopolitical compulsions that force us to engage with the Taliban, but to accede to their discriminatory & plain primitive mores is outright ridiculous. It’s very disappointing to note the conduct of the Ministry of External Affairs and S. Jaishankar in excluding women journalists from the press briefing of the Taliban Minister,” he said.

India responds
The Ministry of External Affairs clarified that it had no role in the press interaction. “MEA had no involvement in the press interaction held yesterday by Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Delhi,” the ministry stated.

First high-level Taliban visit since 2021
Muttaqi is on a week-long visit to India from October 9 to 16, marking the first high-level delegation from Kabul since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. On the first day of his visit, he held bilateral talks with EAM Jaishankar, discussing cooperation and initiatives to strengthen ties between the two nations. India also announced new healthcare projects as part of its ongoing support to Afghanistan.