The Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced intense backlash after women journalists were banned from attending Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s press conference in New Delhi, Indian media reported.
Muttaqi is on a six-day visit after obtaining a temporary exemption from his travel ban by the UN Security Council Committee (UNSC). It was the first such trip to India by an Afghan Taliban leader since 2021.
A day earlier, India improved ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, giving the diplomatically isolated group a boost, by announcing it would reopen its embassy in Kabul, which closed after the Taliban seized power in 2021.
During the visit, the visiting Foreign Minister held a press conference at the Afghan embassy in Delhi, where security personnel and Delhi Police officials prevented women journalists from attending the event despite multiple requests.
Opposition parties condemned the Modi administration for its silence over the exclusion of women reporters from the high-profile event, calling it an “insult to all Indian women.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said women have the right to equal participation in all fields, adding that the incident sends a message that Modi is “too weak to defend their rights”.
“Mr. Modi, when you allow the exclusion of women journalists from a public forum, you are telling all women in India that you are too weak to defend them,” she wrote in X.
“In our country, women have the right to equal participation in all spaces. Their silence in the face of such discrimination exposes the emptiness of their slogans on Nari Shakti. [woman power]”he added.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi demanded that the Modi government clarify its position on the issue.
“If your recognition of women’s rights is not just a convenient stance from one election to the next, then how has this insult to some of India’s most competent women been allowed in our country, a country whose women are its backbone and its pride?” she asked.
Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram also criticized the media’s handling of the event, saying that the male journalists present at the briefing “should have walked out in protest”.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra went further and criticized the government for “disgracing all Indian women” through its complicity. “By allowing such discrimination on Indian soil, the Modi regime has given up the dignity of the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of External Affairs distanced itself from the controversy, stating that it had “no role” in the preparations for the event.
According to the ministry, the invitations for the press meet were for selected journalists from the Consul General of Afghanistan in Mumbai who were posted in Delhi for the Afghan minister’s visit. The territory of the Afghan embassy is not under the jurisdiction of the Indian government, he noted.
