Afghanistan's Press conference in India failed to pass the feminist check

Varisha Tariq
10 hours ago
5 min read

On 10th October, 2025, the Afghan Embassy hosted a forum with Afghanistan’s Foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi, India. The embassy had invited over sixteen journalists, and not a single one of them was a woman, let alone a woman from intersectional identities. In the forum, it was observed by other journalists, how women and foreign media were turned away from the gate of the embassy, and has been widely discussed in the media.

As a young woman and journalist, based out of India, with intersectional identities, and as a feminist researcher, I have been deeply affected by this recent event where women journalists were not allowed to be a part of a forum organised around the Taliban's Foreign Minister. On behalf of women journalists everywhere, I felt insulted and impacted.

This event, in tandem with the way the Taliban government views women, as people to be excluded from every table of power, authority and government body, enraged women journalists across India. To be excluded from an event that holds discussion over international policies, politics, and the relationships between two countries, questions the very idea of democracy.

When questioned by leaders of the opposition, and journalists, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs responded that it had no say in the guest list of the press conference.

Why? If anything, India should have been at the forefront of this critical women’s rights issue, putting forth our best women journalists to be a part of the panel, or expressing their position on women journalists being part of political discussions.

What is our value as women journalists?

I heard about this event from the influx of messages on journalist groups that I am part of and through social media. My first reaction was a feeling of deep sadness.

Women face massive hurdles for being in a field where they are constantly challenging patriarchal forces. They are put on radar for doing work rooted in justice, or bringing out the hidden truth. An event like this, which felt like a dismissal of their position, is a setback to the progress we have made as a society working to empower women.

Within a day, questions had begun to pour from everywhere: Why did the government allow for this? Why were there no women? Are women not an important part of this democracy? Leaders of opposition, women journalists, activists, were all feeling anger, and by this point I was also feeling it.

When questioned the next day, the Taliban government said that it was a technical issue, due to mismanagement of the guest list, and was not ‘intentional.’ But when he was questioned on the position of women in their own country, Muttaqi said that every country has their own rules and customs.

‘For Democracy.’

On one of the civilian political messaging groups that I am a part of, questions began. Many were enraged at this, yet there were a few who tried to make us understand why this issue is beyond gender.

"This is just how diplomacy works," someone let us know. To sum up the argument, maintaining a good relationship between the two nations is important for both India and Afghanistan. Economy, right? Trade, airspace, defense? Words that supposedly represent masculinity, so of course, how could women even begin to matter here?

In fact, the male journalists who were invited did not even question the absence of women in that room. They should have had the courage to question, or to get up and walk away. Men, it seems, very easily accept the absence of women. Are women secondary citizens that can be shifted around to the whims and fantasies of these men in power?

Snatching our seat at the table

As a journalist who works exceptionally hard to be part of as many conversations as possible, this was exceptionally triggering. To be excluded from a seat at the table by your own government, one that promotes itself as a patron of women's rights, is hurtful. India has exceptional female journalists who are doing work to constantly challenge patriarchy and structures that inhibit us as a society.

Women journalists, being sacrificed in the name of diplomacy, for optics, makes me question my own value in the system I exist in. Especially as a Muslim journalist and a gender studies researcher who is aware of the positionality of women from Afghanistan and understood how human rights are being curtailed in the name of culture, stifling education and distribution of opportunities, the Taliban has been very vocal on their stance on women. But India, with its rich culture, diverse heritage, women who belong to so many different religions and cultures, and with democracy and freedom being our core values, I would have assumed that up until now our stance on women and their freedom had also been very clear.

Women treated as replaceable commodities

Yet, and this is the pinch of the struggle, why are women treated as commodities that can be sacrificed at the altar of diplomacy, politics, for ‘culture’, and why do men, in position of power, get to have a say in it? How can 48% of a nation’s population be treated as a zero?

Thousands of young girls in Afghanistan are being forced to give up their education rights. Not only this, but they are forced to wear head-to-toe niqabs and not allowed to travel anywhere without a male companion. These are not choices, but severe limitations on their agency. As a woman’s rights activist, I am deeply familiar with their reality, or rather with the erasure of their identity to fit some cultural compliance towards patriarchy.

At the heart of anger is fear. Is the identity of a woman so small and inexplicable, that it could be made to disappear, curbed down, just to support your patriarchal ties of diplomacy? Considering women to be invaluable, replaceable, or people who can be pushed aside should have the rightful consequences of rage.

More than 60% of women journalists in Afghanistan have lost their job since the Taliban regime, reports the International Federation of Journalists. Moreover, 87% of women journalists in Afghanistan have suffered discrimination. It's not surprising, therefore, that they women would be excluded from their forum. They are an army of men, who serve men. This is where India's role gets so important. A feminist government anywhere has the responsibility to protect all genders, their social and their economic positionality.

Countries like Canada, Sweden, Germany, France and others have adopted a feminist foreign policy in their government, which extends support and protection for their women journalists. A feminist government is the only opposition to a regime such as the Taliban's. Whether it is South Asia, or Asia at large, or even the world, all governments will have to incorporate feminist policies in their system of governance. And yes, this would mean, if a government that doesn’t support women’s rights visits, we put our best foot forward and our best journalists, instead of basing it on gender. No friendship, between people or countries, can exist without showcasing our true self. A patriarchal system of governance will continue to negatively impact the mental health of all women, for as long as it is in power.

A beacon of hope?

The women journalists in India did not back down. They took the anger, raised questions to ministries and pillars of government, and the next day, the second more public press conference of Muttaqi, the front row seat was filled entirely with women journalists and their hard hitting questions. From women’s rights to expressing their rage, they let Muttaqi know exactly how they felt about their actions and I am so proud of them. May all of us, everywhere, rise and always have the strength and courage to fight back.