How does exposing one's upper body indicate respect to others?

 2022 was the year of the woman. Dictionary.com's word of the year is "woman."

In the United States, arguably the wealthiest country in the world at any time, the year's events, including elections, highlighted women's rights as a core issue at stake. Halfway across the globe in Iran, women have risen against the perceived oppressive practice of keeping their hair covered in the name of a different religion. But we all know the issue is bigger than reproductive rights or God wishing a woman to keep her head covered. It is about using religion as a pretext for one half of the human race to control the other. Therefore, I found the story of the upper garment revolt from southern India fascinating: how Christian missionaries helped women of lower castes gain the fundamental right to cover their breasts.

Please take a moment to read Maddy's blog linked here https://maddy06.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-breast-tax-and-upper-cloth-movement.html about a sordid aspect of history from my home state of Kerala, India.

Although the caste system was never intended to be rigid when initially conceived in Vedic India, it became an immutable barrier to progress over time. It was the norm in medieval India in southern Indian princely states for only women of upper castes to cover their breasts. Women of inferior castes had to keep their breasts exposed in deference to those above them in society. Those who dared not comply received humiliating punishments.

The East India Company and Christian missionaries assisted these oppressed women in fighting the system, but on condition. They had to convert to Christianity.

Some argue that women in these areas had always chosen to walk around half-naked. That the British were doing them no favors. The Brits forcefully imposed their morals and standards on the natives. Maddy's blog article and other articles make the same argument. There was no shame in keeping the upper body exposed until women were ridiculed by their sisters who had converted to Christianity and started believing in the modernity of keeping one's breasts covered. 

So is flashing one's naked body insulting and therefore punishable by law as we believe it now in civilized society, or allowing women to walk around half exposed, the more advanced way of living? What we believe is decent and acceptable changes with time. And every society probably believes ( perhaps mistakenly) that they are the most advanced humans alive.

Judging any individual's actions from another era is challenging because humans are guided by existing societal norms.

I would argue that this discussion would be moot if a core issue were not at stake: a woman's right to choose what to do to her body.

As long as that choice is compromised or even up for debate, we are no better today than we were centuries ago.