ISLAMABAD: “This is the ultimate dishonour to the women of India,” Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra lashed out against the government in her post on X after media reports stated that women journalists were excluded from the Taliban minister’s Delhi press conference on his request.
Moitra’s remarks that the government enabled gender discrimination on Indian soil coincided with a wave of anger on the internet against keeping women journalists away from the press conference.
On Friday, October 10, 2025, a press interaction was held in New Delhi, reportedly at the Afghan Embassy, following bilateral talks between visiting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi and External Affairs Minister of India Dr. S. Jaishankar.
In her video posted on the social media platform X, Mahua Moitra termed the government officials as “a shameful bunch of spineless hypocrites.”
Expressing disdain, another X user, Nayanima Basu, said: “Right under the Indian government's nose, in the heart of the capital city, the Afghan Foreign Minister Muttaqi holds a press conference, intentionally excluding any female journalists. How can this be allowed? Who approved such an outrageous disregard for representation?”
Despite the Ministry of External Affairs' clarification that the press interaction was managed by the Afghan side, MP Moitra blamed the Indian government. Moitra said the government not only yielded to the Taliban’s discriminatory policy against women but also “dishonoured every single Indian woman by allowing a Taliban minister to exclude women journalists."
Agreeing with another user on X, a prominent Indian journalist, Suhasini Haider, said: “Quite right, Uma, our expectations are not from the Taliban [government], which has enacted laws to erase women from public life, but from our own government in particular that they would protest such discrimination even if they felt powerless to stop it.”
Expressing disappointment on another post on X, Anjali Modi stated: “Our expectations are also from our male colleagues to stand up for what is right, rather than endorsing the Taliban's ideological sexism by attending a male-only press conference!”
Mahua Moitra said on the one hand, the government ran campaigns like 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter), and on the other hosts an official who would not sit with women. She also criticized male journalists, who attended the press conference, for their "silence," noting they failed to protest or walk out in solidarity with their female colleagues."
