After facing widespread criticism for excluding women journalists from his first press conference, Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will now hold a second press conference in New Delhi, this time with female reporters invited as well.
The Embassy of Afghanistan in India announced the event on social media, sharing the date, time, and venue for the upcoming press conference.
After fierce backlash the #Taliban FM will be holding a 2nd press meet, this time inviting women journalists as well, who’d been excluded from the 1st one. While that’s as should be, evidently this one is also inside the Afghanistan embassy, undoing every single theory offered on… pic.twitter.com/HPKQADVgOS
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) October 12, 2025
According to the embassy, the event will take place inside the Afghanistan Embassy premises, the same location where the first press meet was held. Interestingly, this new development has also put to rest several earlier explanations offered by officials and supporters of the Taliban minister, who had claimed that women journalists were left out the first time due to “space constraints” or “security reasons.”
The controversy erupted on Friday 10th October, when female journalists were allegedly barred from attending the initial press conference held by Muttaqi in Delhi. Several reporters, including senior correspondents from leading news channels and a journalist from The Independent, said they were not allowed inside despite having official media invites.
The first press meet came after Amir Khan Muttaqi’s meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, during which the two leaders discussed bilateral trade, humanitarian aid, and regional security cooperation.
Now, with a second press conference being organized and female journalists formally invited, the Taliban government seems to be making an effort to address the strong backlash that followed the earlier incident.
