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As India quietly reopens its embassy in Afghanistan and hosts Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, a press conference controversy highlights the tension between engagement and principle.
When Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, arrived in New Delhi for talks earlier this month, it was immediately clear that this was no routine diplomatic visit. It marked the first trip by a senior Taliban leader to India since 2021, signalling a cautious but significant shift in the usually reclusive group.
India, which had closed its Kabul mission after the Taliban takeover in Kabul, announced plans to reopen its embassy to restore limited engagement with Afghanistan. It was a move closely tied to the shifting power equations in the Afghanistan–Pakistan region.
Divya Malhotra, senior researcher with the Centre for National Security Studies in Bangalore, explained that for years, Pakistan was the Taliban’s principal patron. “For India and the Taliban, Pakistan’s growing military assertiveness is both a common pressure point and a shared denominator, driving a rare tactical and strategic convergence,” she said. “The world still remembers September 2021, when the then Pakistan Security chief Faiz Hameed flew to Kabul to meet the new Taliban leadership and then PM Imran Khan hailed the Taliban for ‘breaking the shackles of slavery.’
Interestingly, both men are now in jail. Delhi, meanwhile, watched uneasily as two decades of investments, goodwill and strategic depth in Afghanistan seemed to vanish overnight.
However, the tables have turned,” Malhotra added.
Against this complex backdrop of shifting alliances and emerging fault lines, the optics of Muttaqi’s visit to India take on a new significance.
As the cameras were setup and the mics checked, the story took an unexpected turn. Reports emerged that female journalists were not allowed to attend the first press conference.
Within hours, the incident triggered strong criticism across media circles and social media. Editors and senior reporters voiced disappointment, and what began as a formal diplomatic event quickly became a conversation about access, optics and inclusion.
The Press Room Moment
The backlash online was swift and visible. From newsroom statements to trending hashtags, questions poured in about why women journalists had been barred from an event held on Indian soil.
Acknowledging the outrage, a second press conference was organised the very next day, where women reporters were invited and participated freely. Taliban foreign minister Muttaqi later described the earlier exclusion as a “technical misunderstanding.”
The gesture to correct the situation was welcomed, but the symbolism stayed. For many in the Indian press corps, it became a moment of reflection on how access defines participation in a democracy.
“The exclusion of women journalists, though problematic, must not be judged out of context. India is opening diplomatic channels, not endorsing Taliban policies, and as a leading democracy in the Global South, it recognises the importance of upholding its ethical commitments while carefully balancing cultural sensitivities with democratic values,” says Malhotra.
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-Asia Media Centre
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