The criminalisation of triple talaq, through a bill passed in the Rajya Sabha last week, replays a familiar history of subverting what women want, into the right of men to rule over other men and 'their' women.

We have seen it with Afghanistan and a US invasion justified by Talibanisation and what it means for women's freedoms. We have seen it with colonial claims about how colonised races don't know how to treat their women, and so, need to be ruled by more 'civilised' races. In a different context, we see this with the issue of sex-work from which people always want to 'rescue' women, frequently leaving them to languish in homes, ignoring the demands of sex-workers for legalisation and better rights, in favour of civilisational pieties.