Women’s journalists attend a second press offered by Afghan FM Muttaqi to Row over First interest- Watch

Several women journalists attended a second press conference on Sunday held by Taliban’s Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The press comes after the Afghan FM came under severe attack after women journalists were ‘excluded’ from the previous conference held in Delhi on Friday. At the Persian Conference of Sunday, the Afghan Foreign Minister had a wave of questions about the absence of female journalists during his previous press briefing. The Afghan FM is on a six -day visit to India. What happened at the press conference? Several opposition leaders described the absence of female journalists at the press conference as ‘unacceptable’ and an ‘insult to women’. A number of press bodies also criticized the Afghan Foreign Minister. The Foreign Ministry (MEA) said it has no involvement in the press interaction. What did FM Muttaqi say? FM Amir Khan Muttaqi talked about the previous absence of women journalists, saying it was ‘unintentional’. “As for the press conference, it was organized at short notice. A small list of journalists was completed. It was more a technical problem,” he said. Muttaqi said there is no intention to exclude women’s journalists. “Our colleagues decided to send invitations to specific journalists and there was no other intention,” he said. The drive over the absence of women’s journalists at Muttaqi’s first press conference in Delhi is coming amid the repeated criticism of the United Nations on the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s lives in Afghanistan. Women in Afghanistan under the “Taliban 2.0” regime who seized control in August 2021 faced Afghan women and girls who call the UN the worst women’s rights crisis in the world. According to the United Nations, the de facto authorities (DFA) have issued dozens of guidelines that deprive women and girls of their rights-of education and work to their movement and public decision making. Girls are banned from high school. Women are also banned from universities, most posts and public spaces such as parks, gyms and sports clubs. The visit of the Taliban Minister, who started on October 9 and will last until October 16, has seized the first high-level delegation from Kabul to India since the Taliban in August 2021 in Afghanistan.