MEA denies involvement in Afghan FM Muttaqis presser that excluded ladies journalists

The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday (October 11, 2025) clarified that it was not concerned within the press interplay held on Friday (October 10) by the visiting Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi.

The assertion comes after the presser drew heavy criticism over the exclusion of ladies journalists. According to PTI, it is learnt that the choice on inviting journalists to the media interplay was taken by Taliban officers accompanying the Foreign Minister.

“MEA had no involvement within the press interplay held yesterday by the Afghan FM in Delhi,” the Ministry stated on Saturday (October 11).

Reacting to the information, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra described the incident as an “insult to a few of India’s most competent ladies”.

The Congress basic secretary stated if the Prime Minister’s recognition of ladies’s rights isn’t simply handy posturing from one election to the opposite, how has this “insult to a few of India’s most competent ladies been allowed in our nation”.

The press convention had been organised on the Afghanistan Embassy in New Delhi following bilateral talks between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Mr. Muttaqi. No joint press briefing was held after the official assembly between the 2 ministers and the Afghan facet alone performed a separate media interplay at its embassy premises.

Former Union Home Minister and senior Congress chief P. Chidambaram additionally expressed shock and disappointment, saying male journalists ought to have walked out in solidarity with their feminine colleagues. “I’m shocked that girls journalists had been excluded from the press convention addressed by Mr Amir Khan Muttaqi of Afghanistan. In my private view, the boys journalists ought to have walked out once they discovered that their ladies colleagues had been excluded (or not invited),” Mr. Chidambaram stated in a put up on X.

The Taliban regime in Kabul has confronted extreme criticism from varied nations in addition to international our bodies just like the United Nations for limiting the rights of ladies in Afghanistan.

On Friday, Muttaqi side-stepped a direct query on the plight of ladies in Afghanistan, however stated each nation has its personal customs, legal guidelines and rules, and there needs to be respect for them.

With inputs from businesses