India's top court has rejected a petition seeking menstrual leave for working women and female students with the judges saying if they were to make such a law, "no-one will hire women".

印度最高法院驳回了一项为职业女性和女学生设立经期假的请愿。法官表示，如果制定这样的法律，“将没有人会雇用女性”。

The two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said mandatory leave would make young women think they were "not at par" with their male colleagues and would be "harmful for their growth".

由首席大法官苏里亚·坎特（Surya Kant）领导的两名法官组成的合议庭表示，强制性休假会让年轻女性觉得自己“不如男性同事”，并且“对她们的发展不利”。

The top court's comments came while hearing a petition filed by lawyer Shailendra Mani Tripathi, seeking a national menstrual leave policy, legal website LiveLaw reported.

据法律网站 LiveLaw 报道，最高法院是在审理律师沙伊伦德拉·马尼·特里帕蒂（Shailendra Mani Tripathi）提出的一项请愿时发表上述言论的。该请愿旨在推动制定全国性的经期假政策。

Tripathi later told news agency IANS that he had hoped that working women would receive "two-to-three days of leave" to account for menstrual difficulties.

特里帕蒂随后对新闻机构 IANS 表示，他原本希望在职女性能够获得“2 到 3 天的假期”，以应对经期带来的不适。

The judges, however, said that introducing such a policy would not benefit women — instead, it would harm them by reinforcing gender stereotypes and affecting their employability.

然而，法官们认为，引入这样的政策不会让女性受益——相反，它会因为强化性别刻板印象而对女性造成伤害，并影响她们的就业机会。

The comments by the top court have once again spotlighted a topic that has long divided opinion in India and led to debates around whether it was a progressive move or encouraged stereotypes that women are weaker and unfit for the work space.

最高法院的这些言论再次将这一长期在印度存在争议的话题推到聚光灯下，并引发了关于这一举措究竟是进步之举，还是会强化“女性更弱、不适合职场”的刻板印象的讨论。

By saying that menstrual leave would make women "unattractive" as employees, the judges "reiterate the taboo around menstruation and rights that we have failed to address", public health expert and lawyer Sukriti Chauhan told the BBC.

公共卫生专家兼律师苏克里蒂·乔汉告诉 BBC，法官们声称经期假会让女性作为员工变得“缺乏吸引力”，这“重申了围绕月经的禁忌以及我们未能解决的权利问题”。

Some argue that giving women extra leave would be discriminatory to men and in a country where periods are often a taboo subject — with women barred from temples or isolated at home as "unclean" — menstruating women may even be too shy to claim it.

有人认为，给予女性额外假期对男性是一种歧视。而在这个将月经长期视为禁忌话题的国家——（经期）女性被禁止进入寺庙，或以“不洁”为由被隔离在家——正在经期的女性甚至可能羞于去申请这项假期。

But campaigners point out that many countries like Spain, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia already offer menstrual leave and that studies have shown this time off can be beneficial to women.

但倡导者们指出，西班牙、日本、韩国和印度尼西亚等许多国家已经提供经期假，且研究表明，这段休假时间对女性有益。