Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki began a week-long visit to India last Thursday, the first diplomatic visit by a top leader of the Islamic fundamentalist group since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
This trip became possible only due to the temporary relaxation in the travel ban imposed by the United Nations on Muttaki.
This is seen as an attempt by New Delhi to change its stance without formally recognizing the Taliban government in Kabul.
Following talks between Muttaki and Indian Foreign Minister Subramanian Jaishankar on Friday, New Delhi announced it would upgrade ties with the Taliban and reopen the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
But on the same day, a press conference organized by the Taliban at the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi was sharply condemned because only male journalists were invited to it. Indian journalists, media outlets and opposition politicians criticized the decision.
The Press Club of India “strongly condemned” it, while the Editors Guild of India described it as “gross gender discrimination on Indian soil”.
Delhi Union of Journalists president Sujata Madhok told DW that it was outrageous that the Taliban brought their misogynistic politics to New Delhi. She asked, “Geopolitics is all well and good but gender politics is also important. Why should it be sacrificed in the ‘larger interest’?”
Taliban faced defeat due to reaction
India’s Ministry of External Affairs tried to distance itself from the controversy, saying it “had no involvement in the press conference held in Delhi by the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan.”
The ministry stressed that the event was organized at the Afghan Embassy only on behalf of the Taliban, with no involvement of the Indian government.
However, the statement did not quell criticism, with some voices accusing the Indian government of tacitly allowing discriminatory norms on Indian soil.
Rahul Gandhi, a prominent leader of the opposition Congress party, wrote on equal participation in every field.
Following the backlash, the Taliban held another press conference at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi – this time also inviting women journalists, who occupied front seats at the event and questioned the minister about the brutal subjugation of Afghan women and girls under Taliban rule.
Muttaqi blames ‘technical problems’ for lack of women
At the press conference, Muttaqi tried to downplay the exclusion of women journalists from the previous media event, calling it a “technical issue”.
He said, “With regard 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 a technical issue.”
Smita Sharma, an independent journalist focusing on foreign affairs, who attended the second press conference on Sunday, believes there were ways for the Indian government to avoid the incident.
He said, “The Indian Ministry of External Affairs could have avoided this fiasco and poor approach by timely intervening or stating its objection in the first discriminatory press conference.”
“The outrage in India really started when women journalists spoke up for their rights to not be discriminated against on the basis of gender in their professional duties by a foreign delegation,” she said.
‘Indian diplomacy missed an opportunity’
Suhasini Haider, diplomatic affairs editor at the Indian English Daily The Hindu, She said the rise of the Taliban signaled that this kind of gender discrimination is unacceptable in India.
“Muttaqi’s behavior, including bringing a Taliban flag to the embassy despite India not recognizing the Taliban government, was meant as a political statement that Taliban rules could apply in Delhi. Yet, he later admitted in an open press conference that this was a wrong move,” he told DW.
Haider, who also attended the second press conference, said the change was not due to external diplomatic pressure but due to public uproar and media solidarity.
“Public outrage played a significant role, even though there were no rallies or activism other than journalists’ objections,” he said.
Haider said, “However, Indian diplomacy missed an opportunity during Jaishankar’s talks with Muttaki. No statements were made about gender discrimination, girls’ education, or women’s right to work in Afghanistan – issues that could have been addressed.”
Taliban maintains ‘gender apartheid’ in Afghanistan
Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban has rolled back the progress achieved over the past two decades on women’s rights.
They have banned women and girls from almost all spheres of public life.
Girls are barred from attending school after the sixth grade, and women are barred from local jobs and non-governmental organizations. The Taliban has also ordered beauty salons to be closed and banned women from going to gyms and parks. And women are not allowed to go out without a male guardian.
In August, the Taliban deepened widespread restrictions by ordering women to hide not only their faces and bodies but also their voices outside the home.
Against this backdrop, Haider said, India “must be cautious not to appear to be appeasing a regime that is accused of serious rights abuses, including gender apartheid, and which remains unrecognized globally.”
Prioritizing India’s interests over values?
The gradual thawing in India-Taliban relations appears to be coinciding with the souring of relations between Pakistan and the religious fundamentalist group.
Islamabad has become angry with the Taliban rule over cross-border terrorism among other issues and has also launched air strikes on Afghan territory.
Fierce fighting broke out over the weekend between Pakistani forces and Afghan Taliban forces, the deadliest conflict between the neighbors in recent years.
Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria said India and the Taliban are prioritizing their national security interests in their dealings with each other while acknowledging their differences in terms of democracy, religion and gender politics.
She said the Indian media and civil society were right to put pressure on the Taliban minister on gender discrimination. “Muttaqi will go home with a better understanding of the problem that her attitude towards women will cause to the rest of the world,” she told DW.
She said India should “continue to put pressure on the Taliban on their gender politics at home,” but stressed that if the two sides’ values do not align, “this should not hinder India’s pragmatic engagement with Afghanistan’s current rulers.”
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru