Several journalists on Friday said that women reporters were not invited to the press conference held by Taliban-ruled Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi on Friday. They said that the decision was “unacceptable”.

Muttaqi arrived in the country earlier in the day and met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar – the highest bilateral contact between India and the Taliban since 2021.

He held a press conference at the Afghanistan embassy in New Delhi on Friday evening to share details about his trip to India.

Several journalists on social media pointed out how no women reporters were invited to the press conference.

Images shared by Hafiz Zia Ahmad, the director of public communication for Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, on social media also showed no women reporters present during the press conference.

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has been accused of severe human rights abuses, especially against women and minorities.

A month after the insurgent group retook power, it banned education for girls above class six in September 2021, claiming that it did not comply with its interpretation of the Sharia, or Islamic law. This came a month after the group took control of Afghanistan.

It has also barred women from several jobs and most public spaces.

On Friday, independent journalist Smita Sharma said in a social media post that no woman reporters were invited to the press conference by Muttaqi, adding that Jaishankar too did not refer to “the horrible plight of Afghan girls and women under Taliban regime”.

“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.

Poulomi Saha, senior editor at India Today, also asked why the Taliban government was allowed to hold a press conference on Indian soil, “where they discriminate against our women journalists and don’t allow them in?!”

Geeta Mohan, executive editor at India Today, said that women journalists were not invited to Muttaqi’s press conference and described it as “unacceptable”.

In December 2022, the Taliban government ordered such organisations to suspend the employment of Afghan women, claiming that women were wearing hijabs, or headscarves usually worn by Muslim women, improperly.

In December 2024, it announced that it would shut down the operations of national and foreign non-governmental organisations in the country employing women.

India to reopen embassy in Kabul

During the meeting between the two foreign ministers earlier on Friday, 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.

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.

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.

However, in June 2022, India deployed a technical team at its diplomatic mission in Kabul “for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and in continuation of our engagement with the Afghan people”.

The technical mission will now be upgraded to the status of an embassy.

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