Afghanistan's foreign minister held a news conference in India on Friday, and it's making headlines not for anything he said but because of a rule enforced as he spoke: No female journalists were allowed in the room with Amir Khan Muttaqi, reports NDTV. The incident at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi is now drawing lots of backlash—against the Indian government for allowing it to happen as well as against the male journalists who went along with the rule.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi "has dishonored every single Indian woman by allowing Taliban minister to exclude women journalists from pressers," wrote female lawmaker Mahua Moitra, per the Times of India. "Shameful bunch of spineless hypocrites." Another prominent political figure, P Chidambaram, said the male journalists "should have walked out" when their female counterparts were denied entry. India's Ministry of External Affairs tried to distance itself from the controversy, saying it played no role in organizing the event, but the explanation was doing little to quell criticism domestically.
"When you allow the exclusion of women journalists from a public forum, you are telling every woman in India that you are too weak to stand up for them," said opposition party leader Rahul Gandhi. The press conference came amid heightened scrutiny of the Taliban's policies restricting women's rights in Afghanistan, including new bans on female-authored books and the removal of academic courses on women's rights and human rights.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
