Anger after female journalists were excluded from Afghan embassy event in India

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

About 16 journalists were selected to attend a forum on Friday with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mottaki at the Afghan Embassy. Journalists noted the exclusion of women and foreign media.

But Zai Takal, a member of the Taliban government delegation and Foreign Ministry spokesman, denied that anyone was rejected, and said: “All journalists who came to the embassy were allowed to participate.”

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it had “nothing to do with the press interaction” at the Afghan embassy.

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

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

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, by allowing the event to go ahead, “is 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 MEA coordinated the event or not, it is extremely worrying that such a discriminatory exclusion has been allowed to go ahead without objection.”

She called on the Indian government to “publicly emphasize that press access to diplomatic events held in India must respect gender equality.”

Mottaki is visiting India for a week to hold high-level talks with the government. On Friday, he met Foreign Minister S Jaishankar who announced that India will reopen its embassy in Kabul. It was closed after the Taliban returned to power.

Since 2021, the Taliban government has imposed numerous restrictions in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law, severely impacting 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 field.”

Indian politician Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked Modi to clarify his position on “removing female journalists” from the rally.

She wondered how “such insult to some of India’s most competent women” was allowed in “a country whose women are its backbone and its pride”.

Others expressed their shock and said that the men who went to the event should have withdrawn in solidarity with their female colleagues.

“Why did our weak, weak journalists stay in the room?” wrote politician Mahua Moitra on social media.

“The government has insulted every Indian woman by allowing the Taliban minister to exclude women journalists from the press. A shameful group of weak hypocrites,” she added.