The supreme court offered politicians the chance to do the right thing when it ruled that women of childbearing age should be able to enter the Sabarimala shrine. The long-running dispute has been sharpened by recent developments, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata party’s fostering of Hindu nationalism and the #MeToo movement. Women seeking to visit the shrine see not faith but misogyny as the obstacle. Yet the supreme court gave politicians an opportunity to advance much-needed social reform. The supreme court made it clear that supporters of the ban have no monopoly on that description: the women who challenged it are believers too.

Source: The Guardian January 03, 2019 18:33 UTC