Sri Lankan President doesn't want women to buy alcohol

The law bans women from only buying alcohol, not consuming it, which is both absurd and discriminatory.

Had it been lifted, it would have allowed:

1. All Sri Lankan women older than 18 to legally buy booze for the first time in over 60 years,

2. Alcohol sales from 8am-10pm instead of the current 9am-9pm,

3. Women to work in bars without a permit.

Several monks in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka had slammed the ban-lifting, worrying that it would turn more women into alcohol addicts and ruin family structures.

However, Sirisena's intervention and the monks' fears seem wholly unfounded, especially because according to a WHO 2014 report, 80.5% of Sri Lankan women don't drink at all. To add to it, less than 0.1% of them are heavy drinkers.

Calling it another tool of control, Twitter users are attacking Sirisena for his apparent hypocrisy.

On one hand, he is encouraging Sri Lankan women's active participation in politics. However, on the other, he thinks they are not mature enough even to decide whether to buy alcohol or not.

His contradictory move is also reflective of the growing rifts within his coalition government.