When our judiciary fails to recognise this impossible choice—between conformity and autonomy—it becomes an instrument of the injustice it is meant to address. This regression is an insult to the slow-moving, hard-won progress that feminist legal advocacy has fought for over decades. And while judges’ opinions are a reflection of the society they occupy, some of these observations are hard to read as individual bias, and not a collective resistance to women’s full personhood under law. The Indian Constitution once promised women equal citizenship. In 2025, we know that that’s not entirely true. We only have the freedom to be autonomous…so long as the patriarchy permits. Watch Karanjeet Kaur, journalist & former editor of Arré, explain this and more: