KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban reportedly barred female journalists from attending a press conference by the group’s Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, at the Afghanistan Embassy in New Delhi on Friday, sparking outrage among Indian politicians, media, and activists.
Indian news outlets reported that female reporters, despite holding official invitations and adhering to Islamic dress codes, were prevented from entering the embassy. According to the reports, Indian officials had suggested including women journalists in the event, but the final decision on attendance was made by Taliban officials accompanying Muttaqi.
The exclusion has sparked intense backlash in India. Opposition politicians and journalists criticized the incident as contradictory to the country’s democratic values and commitment to gender equality.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition party and senior Congress leader, criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his silence “exposes the emptiness” of the government’s commitment to women’s empowerment. “When you allow the exclusion of women journalists from a public forum, you are telling every woman in India that you are too weak to stand up for them,” he wrote on X.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a senior Congress politician, called on Modi to clarify his stance, describing the exclusion as “an insult to some of India’s most competent women.” Manoj Kumar Jha, a member of the Indian Parliament, described the incident as more than a procedural lapse, calling it a “symbolic surrender of India’s long-cherished commitment” to equality, press freedom, and gender justice.
India’s former Home Minister P. Chidambaram said male journalists should have walked out in protest when their female colleagues were barred. “I was shocked that women journalists were barred from the press conference by Mr. Amir Khan Muttaqi. In my personal view, the male journalists should have left when they saw their women colleagues were excluded,” he said.
Amid growing criticism, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it had no role in organizing the event and noted that the embassy premises do not fall under Indian jurisdiction.
Muttaqi’s visit is the first by a senior Taliban official to India since the group returned to power in 2021. He has been granted a six-day exemption from United Nations travel sanctions and has met Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and other officials.
At the press conference, he announced that India would upgrade its “technical mission” in Kabul to a full diplomatic presence. India had closed its embassy in August 2021 but reopened a limited office the following year to coordinate humanitarian aid, trade, and medical support.
Since regaining control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women and girls, barring them from secondary and higher education, most forms of employment, and public spaces such as parks and gyms. Rights groups and activists argue that these measures amount to gender apartheid, effectively removing women from public life and limiting their access to social, economic, and political opportunities.
On Friday, in response to a question about the Taliban’s restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls, Muttaqi claimed that it was “all part of a propaganda.”
