Subhechcha Ganguly 
A diplomatic visit by Afghanistan’s acting Taliban Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has ignited a political and gender rights storm in India after women journalists were reportedly barred from attending his press conference at the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi on Thursday.
The incident has drawn sharp criticism from political leaders across party lines. Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram called the exclusion of women journalists “shocking,” urging male journalists to walk out in solidarity.
“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 male journalists should have walked out when they found that their female colleagues were excluded (or not invited),” Chidambaram wrote on X.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra also condemned the move, questioning how such gender discrimination was permitted on Indian soil. Meanwhile, Congress MP Karti P. Chidambaram accused the Modi government and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar of “enabling” the exclusion.
“I understand the geopolitical compulsions that force us to engage with the Taliban, but to accede to their discriminatory and primitive mores is outright ridiculous,” he said, expressing disappointment over the MEA’s handling of the situation.
Muttaqi’s week-long visit to India, from October 9 to 16, marks the first high-level delegation from Kabul since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021. On the first day of his visit, he met with EAM S. Jaishankar to discuss bilateral cooperation and ongoing development projects, including new initiatives in healthcare for Afghanistan.
