
Taliban-ruled Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday said that women journalists not being invited to his press conference on Friday was “more a technical issue”, reported ANI.
Muttaqi, who is on a week-long visit to India, held another press conference on Sunday, inviting women journalists this time.
“It was on short notice and a short list of journalists was decided, and the participation list that was presented was very specific,” said the Afghan minister while speaking about the row over Friday’s press conference held at the Afghan embassy. “It was more a technical issue.”
He added: “Our colleagues had decided to send an invitation to a specific list of journalists and there was no other intention apart from this.”
On Friday, several journalists said that the decision not to invite women reporters was “unacceptable”.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan has been accused of severe human rights abuses, especially against women and minorities.
In September 2021, the insurgent group banned education for girls above class six, claiming that it did not comply with its interpretation of the Sharia, or Islamic law. This came a month after the group retook control of Afghanistan.
It has also barred women from several jobs and most public spaces.
The Editors Guild of India on Saturday said that it condemns the exclusion of women journalists from the press conference.
“While diplomatic premises may claim protection under the Vienna Convention, that cannot justify blatant gender discrimination in press access on Indian soil,” the news association said. “Whether or not the MEA coordinated the event, it is deeply troubling that such a discriminatory exclusion was allowed to proceed without objection.”
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations exempts premises of embassies from the host country’s jurisdiction.
The Editors Guild of India urged the government to publicly reaffirm that press access at diplomatic events held in India must respect gender equity.
Later in the day, the Ministry of External Affairs said that it was not involved in the press conference held by Muttaqi to share details about his trip to India.
“MEA had no involvement in the press interaction held yesterday by the Afghan FM in Delhi,” stated the ministry.
Muttaqi had met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday morning – the highest bilateral contact between New Delhi and the Taliban since 2021.
During the meeting, Jaishankar told Muttaqi that India will reopen its embassy in Kabul. He added that the Afghan foreign minister’s visit to Delhi marked “an important step” in advancing bilateral relations.
India closed its embassy in Kabul after the insurgent group retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as the United States forces left the country following a 20-year conflict.
New Delhi has not officially recognised the Taliban government in Afghanistan. However, the Indian government has allowed the Taliban to appoint a consul general in Mumbai.
In June 2022, India also deployed a technical team at its diplomatic mission in Kabul.
The ministry’s statement on Saturday had come after independent journalist Smita Sharma said on social media that Jaishankar did not refer to “the horrible plight of Afghan girls and women under Taliban regime” during his meeting with Muttaqi.
“Muttaqi getting the red carpet welcome in a country where we take pride in women achievers and leaders because of our security concerns,” she added. “World politics today.”
Suhasini Haidar, the diplomatic affairs editor at The Hindu, said that Muttaqi was allowed to “bring their abhorrent and illegal discrimination against women to India, as the government hosts the Taliban delegation with full official protocol”.
“This isn’t pragmatism, this is supplication,” she added on social media.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify his position on women journalists not being invited for the press conference.
“If your recognition of women’s rights isn’t just convenient posturing from one election to the other, 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,” Vadra said on social media.
In December, the Taliban government announced that it would shut down the operations of national and foreign non-governmental organisations in the country employing women. This came two years after it ordered such organisations to suspend the employment of Afghan women, claiming that women were wearing hijabs, or headscarves usually worn by Muslim women, improperly.
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