Taliban’s welcome is justified by pragmatism. It’s also full of moral fault lines

The reverence and applause for the Taliban, a regime that denies Afghan women education, their freedom, and the very right to exist with dignity, was chilling.

When women journalists were finally included in the second press conference in India, the Taliban leaders refused to look at them while speaking | Source: @ProfNoorul, X

India doesn’t exist in isolation, and in a region like South Asia, engagement is often a necessity rather than a choice. With the Taliban now in control of Afghanistan and regional powers such as China, Pakistan, Iran, and Russia deepening their ties, New Delhi’s outreach appears to be driven by realism.

The logic is straightforward — India needs to secure its western flank, protect its investments, and counter Pakistan’s influence. Yet beneath this practicality lies a familiar danger. We’ve seen this play before: the illusion of “good Taliban” and “bad Taliban”, the belief that engagement can soften an ideology built on fear and control. Whether India’s outreach strengthens its position or merely lends legitimacy to a regime defined by repression is something only time will tell.

As India reopens its embassy in Afghanistan and welcomes Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, an unease hangs in the air. The move, wrapped in the language of diplomacy and pragmatism, comes just as a press conference controversy exposes the moral fault lines of this engagement. It forces a question India would have to deal with — how far can a democracy go in dealing with a regime that thrives on repression, without losing sight of its own principles?

For a democratic country like India, built on the ideals of equality and social justice, outrage over the exclusion of women journalists was not only expected, it was necessary. A nation that has long placed women’s empowerment at the centre of its moral and political discourse cannot stay silent in the face of such blatant discrimination.

And it’s telling that the outrage worked — at the next press conference, women journalists were not only present but bold enough to question the Taliban directly about their treatment of women.

That moment mattered. Because if India seeks strategic leverage, it must also use that position to stand firm on its principles. The Taliban may be desperate for allies, but engagement without accountability only strengthens their hand.

The so-called respect for women

But what caught my attention through all this was not the diplomacy or the optics; it was the warm welcome the Taliban minister received at Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh. The reverence, the applause, and the celebration — for a man who represents a regime that denies women education, their freedom, and the very right to exist with dignity — was chilling.

As a Muslim woman, it is terrifying to see how easily such figures find space for admiration in my community. The bitter truth is that many Muslim men, educated or not, religious or not, would, if given the chance, build a society no different than the one in Afghanistan, where women like me and my sisters would be stripped of every opportunity and voice.

What’s worse is that this support for the Taliban isn’t confined to madrasas or villages; it thrives online too. Those who never tire of speaking about the injustice faced by Muslims in India and elsewhere largely remain blind to the injustice the Taliban perpetuates against women in Afghanistan. Many users on X glorified the exclusion of women journalists as “respect for Islamic values,” not realising they were celebrating their own chains.

When women journalists were finally included in the second press conference, the Taliban leaders refused to look at them while speaking. What followed was a flood of praise on social media by many Muslim accounts, with many calling it a “beautiful display of respect,” an example of how men should lower their gaze in front of a ‘parayi aurat’.

But this so-called respect is anything but that. It’s not reverence, it’s erasure. Behind the language of modesty lies an idea that refuses to see women as equal human beings worthy of being treated with dignity. It’s the belief that a woman’s presence is inherently tempting, that her visibility itself is a threat.

The same idea, when taken to its extreme, justifies locking women inside homes, barring them from schools, and erasing them from public life. What they call piety is, in truth, the sexualisation of a woman’s existence, where even being seen becomes a sin.

At home with Talibani mindset 

Even more disturbing is how normalised this mindset is within the Muslim community, among many men in our own society who celebrate it afar from Afghanistan. The Taliban may be miles away, but their ideology finds quiet admirers right here, among educated men, social media influencers, and those who speak the language of rights and justice when it suits them. They can protest against Islamophobia one day and glorify the subjugation of women the next, without seeing the contradiction. They are not fighting for equality; they are fighting for control.

It’s the truth revealing itself, when Muslim voices that speak up against fascism, religious intolerance, and Hindutva oppression suddenly fall silent, or worse, turn defensive when the oppressor shares their faith. These are not people fighting for justice; they are simply fighting for their own version of dominance.

They find space and legitimacy in liberal or leftist circles, speaking the language of resistance, but their values crumble the moment those rights extend to women or anyone challenging their idea of faith. They are not against right-wing ideology; they simply want their own right-wing in charge. And that hypocrisy, dressed in the language of victimhood, is far more dangerous because it hides behind the mask of morality.

Amana Begam Ansari is a columnist and writer. She runs a weekly YouTube show called ‘India This Week by Amana and Khalid’. She tweets @Amana_Ansari. Views are personal.

(Edited by Saptak Datta)