'No involvement': MEA clarifies after women barred from Afghan FM presser

Afghan FM Amir Muttaqi held a press meet at the Afghanistan embassy in Delhi after talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, but only male journalists attended and no joint briefing was held

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) clarified on Saturday that it had no involvement in the press interaction held by Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi a day earlier, after reports emerged that women journalists were allegedly barred from attending the presser.

 

“MEA had no involvement in the press interaction held yesterday by the Afghan FM in Delhi,” the ministry said in a statement.

 

The press conference was organised at the Afghanistan Embassy in New Delhi, following bilateral talks between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Muttaqi. Only selected male journalists and Afghan embassy officials attended the event. No joint press briefing took place after the official meeting, news agency PTI reported.   

 

  'Unintentional', says Taliban spokesperson

 

Afghan Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen on Saturday clarified that the exclusion of female journalists from Muttaqi’s press conference in New Delhi was unintentional.

 

“There is no discriminatory policy against women. The number of passes was limited; some received them, some did not. It was a technical matter and should not be viewed as a policy issue," Shaheen told CNN-News18.

 

Speaking from Kabul, Shaheen said that he plans to raise the matter with the Afghan foreign minister personally. He pointed out that Muttaqi regularly meets women journalists in his Kabul office. “Muttaqi meets women in his office in Kabul regularly. I myself do interviews with female journalists," he told CNN-News18.

 

Opposition slams government

 

The absence of female journalists at the press meet sparked political outrage. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarify his position, calling it “an insult to India’s women journalists".

 

In a post on X, she said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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 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," she added.

 

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

  Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that male journalists should have walked 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 men journalists should have walked out when they found that their women colleagues were excluded (or not invited),” he said on X.

 

Trinamool Congress MPs Mahua Moitra and Sagarika Ghose also slammed the government, calling it a betrayal of women’s dignity and a failure to separate engagement from endorsement of the Taliban.

 

RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha condemned the exclusion as a symbolic surrender of India’s commitment to equality, freedom of the press, and gender justice, adding that it sends a wrong message to Indian women and the world.

 

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi highlighted the irony of the Taliban’s backdrop at the press meet, while Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate questioned the government’s willingness to comply with a “men-only” diktat.     

 

India upgrades its diplomatic mission in Kabul

 

During the bilateral meeting, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar announced that India would upgrade its Technical Mission in Kabul to the status of an embassy.

 

“India is fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan. To enhance that, I am pleased to announce today the upgrading of India's Technical Mission in Kabul to the status of Embassy of India,” he said.

 

The Taliban delegation’s visit, which began on October 9 and will continue until October 16, is the first high-level delegation from Kabul to India since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

 

(With agency inputs)