It is often said that a picture can say a thousand words.
The one from Monday morning in Indian newspapers, in which female journalists sit in the front row during the press conference of the Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister in Delhi, is certainly one of them.
The conference – Amir Khan Muttaqi’s second press event at the Afghan embassy in about 48 hours – was convened after a huge uproar over the exclusion of women from his first meeting on Friday.
Muttaqi said at Sunday’s conference that the exclusion was unintentional and not “deliberate”.
“As for the [Friday’s] press conference, it was at short notice and a short list of journalists was decided, and the list of participants presented was very specific.
“It was more of a technical matter… Our colleagues had decided to send an invitation to a specific list of journalists and there was no other intention than this,” he added.
The UN has called the situation in Afghanistan ‘gender apartheid’, with women and girls not allowed to attend high school or university, or visit parks or gyms. The jobs they are allowed to do are increasingly restricted and the Taliban government is enforcing head-to-toe coverings and restricting their travel.
The Taliban government, which retook power in 2021, has previously said it respects women’s rights in line with its interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law, but Western diplomats have said their efforts to gain recognition are being hampered by the restrictions on women. The suppression of women’s rights under their rule is the worst in the world.
Muttaqi arrived in India on Thursday for a week of high-level talks with the government of Russia, the only country so far to fully recognize their government.
Delhi has not formally recognized Afghanistan’s de facto rulers, but it is one of a number of countries that maintain some form of diplomatic or informal relations with them, even maintaining a small mission in Kabul and sending humanitarian aid there.
The visit is seen as an intensification of relations between the countries and is of crucial importance for both countries: it gives the Taliban government a boost in its quest for recognition, while India promotes its strategic and security interests. On Friday, Muttaqi met Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, who announced that India would reopen its embassy in Kabul, which was closed after the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
The press event later in the day was attended by about 16 male reporters, while female journalists were turned away from the embassy gate.
A source within the Taliban government had admitted that women were not invited.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it was “not involved in the press interaction” as it took place at the Afghan embassy.
But the gender discrimination on Indian soil angered politicians and journalists who criticized the government for allowing it to happen.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said that by allowing the event to go ahead, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “telling every woman in India that you are too weak to stand up for them.”
The Editors Guild of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) and the Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) have issued strong statements, calling the exclusion “highly discriminatory”.
“While diplomatic premises may claim protection under the Vienna Convention, that cannot justify blatant gender discrimination in access to the press on Indian soil,” the Guild said.
“Whether the MEA coordinated the event or not, it is deeply disturbing that such a discriminatory exclusion could go ahead without objection,” it added.
The NWMI said it was the “responsibility of the Indian government to uphold the democratic rights and constitutional freedoms of women citizens, including their right to work and livelihood” and that it should have questioned such “blatant gender discrimination”.
The group also criticized male journalists who attended Friday’s conference for failing to stand up for their female colleagues. “At moments like these, silence can be seen as complicity in normalizing gender discrimination,” the statement said.
Amid growing outrage in India, Muttaqi’s team sent out new invitations for Sunday’s interaction, describing it as an “inclusive” event open to all media personnel.
It is not clear what led to the second press event – although there has been no official confirmation, there have been some speculation that the Indian government may have intervened.
The conference was well attended and the minister was asked some tough questions about why women were excluded from Friday’s meeting – and about the rights of Afghan girls and women.
“We have 10 million students in schools and institutions, including more than 2.8 million women and girls. In madrassas, education continues until graduation,” Muttaqi replied. ‘Boundaries do exist, but we have never declared female education religiously haram [forbidden]it has only been postponed until further notice,” he said.
Many journalists who attended the press conference questioned the minister’s claim and pointed to the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on girls and women since 2021.
For the past four years, girls over the age of twelve have not been allowed to attend school and employment opportunities for women have been severely limited. In recent weeks, the Taliban government has also removed books written by women from universities in Afghanistan.
The minister’s response to follow-up questions about women’s rights in Afghanistan may not have been satisfactory. But as some journalists have pointed out, the very fact that the second press conference was organized and that the minister answered questions on gender issues can be considered progress.
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