Judging women over clothes is misogynistic prejudice

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has held that judging women on the basis of their clothes or expecting them to be sad on getting a divorce are indications of a "misogynistic prejudice" and "reinforce a very skewed gender stereotype".

- Press Trust of India

The observation by a bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and M B Snehalatha came while setting aside a Family Court order denying custody of the children to a mother for several reasons including that she wore revealing dresses, celebrated her divorce and had an account on a dating app.

Strongly disagreeing with the findings and reasoning of the Family Court, the High Court set it aside by saying that "courts cannot be suspected to be guilty of even borderline misogynism or sexism and our constitutional mandate is that we decide matters as per its conscience and within its overriding umbra".

The High Court granted custody of the children to the mother by also taking into account the kids' wish that they wanted to stay with her full-time and were open to meeting their father on holidays.

In its recent order setting aside the Family Court decision, the High Court observed that through such cases it has realized "how much rigid gender roles and patriarchy have trickled down into societies and guides our thoughts and actions".