WOMEN DO GO TO WAR

Trust a case on gender justice to go off the tangent and become a discussion on whether women do go to war?

But this became a sticking point in a brief exchange between Indira Jaising and Justice RF Nariman while the court was hearing pleas seeking a review of its decision to allow women of all ages to enter Kerala's Sabarimala temple.

Jaising was appearing for Kanakadurga and Bindu -- the only women who have visited Sabarimala -- as well as other women who hoped to visit but were prevented from doing so. Jaising said Bindu's mother had received death threats, and that shopkeepers had been told not to cater to her family and Kanakadurga's. Violence, she asserted, was not in the character of women. "We don't go to war," Jaising asserted. But Justice RF Nariman apparently had just watched Manikarnika, or had the movie in mind, when he replied: "Women do go to war." Then, he cited the instance of Razia Sultana, who ruled Delhi in the 13th century and whose tomb is near Turkman Gate.