Taslima Nasreen slams Taliban over absence of women at press meet

Guwahati: Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has lambasted Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi for not allowing women journalists to attend a press conference in Delhi on Friday.

Nasreen, who left Bangladesh in 1994, said the Taliban "refuse to grant women human rights because they do not consider women to be human."

She also slammed “male journalists who attended the Afghan leader's press conference in Delhi, saying they would have walked out if they had any conscience.”

"The Afghan Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has come to India and held a press conference. However, he did not allow any female journalists to attend. In Islam as practiced by the Taliban, women are expected only to stay at home, bear children, and serve their husbands and children," Nasreen said in a post on X.

"These misogynistic men do not want to see women anywhere outside the home - not in schools, not in workplaces. They refuse to grant women human rights because they do not consider women to be human. If the male journalists had any conscience, they would have walked out of the press conference. A state built on vile misogyny is a barbaric state - and no civilised nation should recognize it," the Bangladeshi author said.

Her comments came in the wake of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) clarifying “that it had no involvement in the press interaction held by the Afghan foreign minister in Delhi.”

The press meet was held at the Afghanistan Embassy after bilateral talks between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Muttaqi. No joint press briefing was held after the meeting between the two ministers. The Afghan side alone conducted a separate media interaction at its embassy.