Outrage in India after women journalists stopped from Taliban presser

A controversy erupted in New Delhi after reports emerged that Indian women journalists were barred from a press briefing by Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at the Afghanistan Embassy.

Congress MP Karti P. Chidambaram criticised the BJP government over the incident. “I am shocked that women journalists were excluded… In my personal view, the men journalists should have walked out when they found that their women colleagues were excluded (or not invited),” he wrote on X.

I am shocked that women journalists were excluded from the press conference addressed by Mr 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)

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) October 11, 2025

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad, also condemned the exclusion, asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify his stance. “If your recognition of women’s rights isn’t just convenient posturing… 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,” she wrote.

Prime Minister @narendramodi ji, please clarify your position on the removal of female journalists from the press conference of the representative of the Taliban on his visit to India.

If your recognition of women’s rights isn’t just convenient posturing from one election to…

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) October 11, 2025

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra described the development as “shameful,” saying the government “has dishonoured every single Indian woman by allowing [the] Taliban minister to exclude women journalists… a bunch of spineless hypocrites.”

Govt has dishonoured every single Indian woman by allowing Taliban minister to exclude women journalists from presser. Shameful bunch of spineless hypocrites. pic.twitter.com/xxnqofS6ob

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 10, 2025

"An Indian muslim cannot offer namaz on own roof or confess love for the Prophet [PBUH] but a foreign Muslim fundamentalist is allowed to discriminate against our women on our soil in violation of all our laws & values because it is “his faith”. Think about it," she wrote in another X post.

An Indian muslim cannot offer namaz on own roof or confess love for the Prophet but a foreign Muslim fundamentalist is allowed to discriminate against our women on our soil in violation of all our laws & values because it is “his faith”. Think about it.

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 10, 2025

In response to the backlash, India’s Ministry of External Affairs clarified that it had no role in organising the press interaction held by Muttaqi.

The Taliban government in Kabul has long faced international criticism, including from the United Nations, for curbing women’s rights, limiting access to education, and restricting participation in public life.