Anger after female journalists excluded from Afghan embassy event in India

Indian politicians and journalists have criticised the government for failing to speak out after female journalists were excluded from a press event with the Afghan Taliban foreign minister in Delhi.

Around 16 male reporters were selected to attend a forum on Friday with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at the Afghan embassy. Journalists observed women and foreign media being turned away.

However Zai Takel, a member of the Taliban government’s delegation and spokesman for the foreign ministry, denied anyone was turned away and said “all journalists who came to the embassy were allowed to participate”.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it “had no involvement in the press interaction” at the Afghan embassy.

A source in the Taliban government admitted women had not been invited to attend.

They told the BBC “female journalists were excluded due to lack of proper coordination and will be invited to next conference if held in Delhi”.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said by allowing the event to go ahead, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “telling every woman in India that you are too weak to stand up for them”.

The Editors Guild of India strongly condemned the exclusion and said: “Whether or not the MEA coordinated the event, it is deeply troubling that such a discriminatory exclusion was allowed to proceed without objection.”

It called for India’s government to “publicly reaffirm that press access at diplomatic events held in India must respect gender equity”.

Muttaqi is in India for a week of high-level talks with the government. On Friday, he met with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar who announced that India would re-open its embassy in Kabul. It was shut after the Taliban returned to power.

Since 2021, the Taliban government has imposed numerous restrictions in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law which have severely impacted the rights of Afghan women and girls.

Following the men-only press event, Rahul Gandhi said on social media: “In our country, women have the right to equal participation in every space.”

Indian politician Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked Modi to clarify his position on “the removal of female journalists” from the gathering.

She asked how “this insult to some of India’s most competent women” had been allowed in “a country whose women are its backbone and its pride”.

Others expressed shock and said the men who went to the event should have walked out in solidarity with their female colleagues.

“Why did our emasculated spineless male journos remain in room?” wrote politician Mahua Moitra on social media.

She added: “Government has dishonoured every single Indian woman by allowing Taliban minister to exclude women journalists from presser. Shameful bunch of spineless hypocrites.”