Amid the controversy over keeping women journalists out of the press conference of Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqiq, who is on a visit to India, the Taliban has given a clarification. Taliban political chief Suhail Shaheen said on Saturday that there was no instruction from us to keep women out and the Taliban has no hand in this incident.
According to the report, Shaheen claimed that “whatever is being said about us is absolutely not true.” He stressed that there are also women journalists in Afghanistan and they are working in media organizations. Shaheen added that Muttaqiq himself regularly meets women journalists in Kabul and answers their questions, so there is no question of a ban here.
On the other hand, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has already clarified on this controversy that India had nothing to do with that press conference, as it was not a joint press conference. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, it was a separate press conference held at the Afghan Embassy in which only a few select male journalists and officials of the Afghan Embassy were present.
The opposition had slammed the central government for not allowing women to enter the Afghan Foreign Minister’s press conference in Delhi. There was also a huge outcry on social media regarding this ban on women’s entry. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra directly attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Priyanka Vadra said that the Prime Minister should clarify the position on this matter. She raised the question that “If your belief in women’s rights remains only from one election to the next, then it should be clear. How did you allow women to be humiliated in the country?”
