Taliban visit in Delhi draws critique over excluding women reporters

Afghanistan's Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, faced widespread criticism after a press conference at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi on Friday excluded women reporters, prompting questions about who decided attendance and drawing objections from journalists, press bodies and opposition politicians. The session followed a morning meeting between Muttaqi and India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, the highest-level bilateral contact between New Delhi and representatives of the Taliban since 2021.

Images from the event showed only male journalists in attendance, and several Indian reporters said they were denied entry. The Ministry of External Affairs said it "had no involvement in the press interaction held yesterday by the Afghan FM in Delhi," and Afghan officials accompanying Muttaqi have been reported as having determined the final list of participants. The embassy held the press event separately after the ministers’ meeting and did not conduct a joint briefing with Indian officials.

The exclusion prompted immediate criticism. The Editors Guild of India described the decision as unacceptable and said diplomatic privilege under the Vienna Convention did not...