Women journalists finally attend Taliban Foreign Minister Muttaqi’s press meet ...
After Saturday's outrage over the exclusion of women journalists at a press conference by Taliban Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, a second press meet was called on Sunday. This time, there was a clear presence of women at the Afghan embassy.A day after the Taliban leader landed in New Delhi, he came under scrutiny for a press meet he held right after meeting with his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar.
Women journalists at Muttaqi's 2nd presser in Delhi pic.twitter.com/RZ8nhKAlac
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) October 12, 2025
It was clear that women journalists were prohibited from entering the meeting on Saturday. Invitations for the briefing were given to around 17 media outlets, all of them represented by male journalists. Women journalists had to wait outside the gates of the embassy.
Editors Guild of India and the Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC) called the act highly discriminatory, which cannot be justified, citing the diplomatic privilege under the Vienna Convention.
“While diplomatic premises may claim protection under the Vienna Convention, that cannot justify blatant gender discrimination in press access on Indian soil,” the guild said. “Whether or not the MEA coordinated the event, it is deeply troubling that such a discriminatory exclusion was allowed to proceed without objection,” they added.
A free and inclusive press must defend representation, not enable exclusion,” the statement read.
Journalists- women and men- walking into the #Afghanistan embassy in Delhi for another press conference by Taliban Min Muttaqi following the last presser row. The original Afghan flag still flutters at the embassy with the Taliban and their black and white flag yet to be… pic.twitter.com/SRJwuF6Crj
— Smita Sharma (@Smita_Sharma) October 12, 2025
Opposition leaders had also questioned the centre for the exclusion of women at the event. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “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.”
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called it an “insult to some of India’s most competent women being allowed in our country”.
Former Union Minister P Chidambaram also said that the male journalists who attended should have walked out of the event when they found out that women journalists were excluded. “I am shocked that women journalists were excluded from the press conference addressed by Amir Khan Muttaqi of Afghanistan. In my personal view, the men journalists should have walked out when they found that their women colleagues were excluded (or not invited),” he said in a post on X.
Following the backlash, Muttaqi’s team issued an “inclusive” invite for Sunday’s press meet open to all members of the media.
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