Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi held a second press conference in New Delhi on Sunday, this time inviting women journalists, following criticism
over their exclusion from his earlier media briefing. The absence of women reporters from Friday's briefing had sparked widespread debate, given the Taliban's long-standing criticism over restrictions on women's rights in Afghanistan. Addressing the controversy, Muttaqi said, "With regards to the press conference, it was on short notice, and a short list of journalists was decided, and the participation list that was presented was very specific. It was more of a technical issue. Our colleagues had decided to send an invitation to a specific list of journalists, and there was no other intention apart from this." Reiterating his stance, Muttaqi said, "Time was short for us, so we invited a few journalists," and added that "no one's rights—whether men's or women's—should ever be denied." Also Read: 'Stop Blaming Us, Insurgency Is Within Your Borders': Afghanistan Warns Pakistan From Indian Soil Amid Tensions
What was the controversy about?
This followed a raging controversy over the absence of female journalists from a press conference of the visiting Afghan minister in New Delhi a day earlier, with the Opposition terming it as "unacceptable" and an "insult to women".
The Editors Guild of India and the Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC) also termed the act as highly discriminatory and said it cannot be justified on grounds of diplomatic privilege under the Vienna Convention.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the absence of female journalists from the presser, saying by allowing "exclusion" of women scribes from a public forum, the prime minister is telling every woman in India that he is "too weak to stand up for them".
The Darul Uloom Deoband on Saturday asserted that there were no directives to keep women journalists away from covering the visit of Afghan Foreign Minister to the seminary.
"There were no restrictions from the Afghan foreign minister's office about who would attend," Deoband PRO Ashraf Usmani, also the media in-charge of Muttaqi's Saturday programme, told PTI, and dismissed as "baseless" claims that women journalists were kept away.
(With agency inputs)
