I’m a man. Men aren’t allowed at the market. Discrimination. And why? "Go away!” screeched the wrinkled, 85-year old. With "them" she means men. She means me and completely rejects my question, adding a dismissive wave of her hand to punctuate her point. Only her thin smile and twinkling eyes let me know that she was (perhaps) just kidding... and would I’d like to buy some of betel nuts to chew on?

Almost anything you need for life, you'll find it at the Mother’s Market in Imphal, India. Raw potatoes, religious coconuts, live fish, squares of brightly colored fabric for a new sari. The one thing you won’t find here: Men!The 'Women Only' Bazaar The Mothers’ Market is quite possibly the only bazaar in the world where women legally discriminate against men. Men are allowed to shop, but otherwise they have to leave. The city even posts notices that men shouldn’t hang out at the Market, if they’ve got nothing better to do. The Mother’s Market is run and managed entirely by women. The market's located at the heart of Imphal, a remote city in northeastern India.

The physical building itself isn’t much to look at. It has the elegance of a parking garage, open on all sides. Inside, a chill fills the air, which is why most of the women at the market are wrapped up to their chins in blankets. Only their heads peak out, topped with a sliver of sandal paste decoratively running from the top of their forehead to between their Asian-shaped eyes. The women sit perched along elevated concrete platforms stretching the length of the hall. Each woman's goods are piled up around them. They look like small statues, goddesses resting in a shrine, with only an occasional arm emerging from underneath their shawls to beckon a customer or complete a sale

“But it’s 2016!” I said to Chitra, a female journalist from Imphal. We were interviewing some of the women. "What about equal rights? What about gender equality? Isn’t it time that discrimination against these Indian men come to an end?”

The old betel nut seller’s facial expression let me know, that this was one of the moronic questions she’d ever heard in her long, wrinkled life. “It’s not possible. This is only for women,” she said.

Hundreds of years ago, Imphal was the capital of an independent kingdom and the town's men were drafted into the king’s royal workforce. It was this tradition, called the Llapup system, that forced the remaining women in town to take over selling at the bazaar. Generation after generation followed and the market simply became known as the "Ima Keithel" - Mothers’ Market.

Centuries later, the bazaar is still the exclusive domain for Imphal’s women. Men are emphatically shut out from working here, and there’re good reasons for the continued discrimination!

Discrimination: 4 Reasons Why Men are Not AllowedTwo chatty, neighboring vendors sit selling strings of colored beads and small squares of fabric. They’re both wrapped in beautiful shawls. “Some men touched a woman while unloading fish.” “That's what we heard and there was lots of trouble.” "That’s why men are not allowed.” Both nod emphatically together.

A different reason for the discrimination against men is offered up by a thin vegetable vendor, chewing on a piece of fruit. "Men aren’t allowed. How should we sit here together? I’m a woman. If a man sits too close, you know what might happen. No, it’s not morally acceptable.”

Back at the betel nut stall, a third argument: "Outside of Manipur you’ll only find men shopkeepers. Only here is there a market just for women. This is for women. Any woman can sell here. Just no men.”

Finally, one of the youngest women I speak with all day, offers up her thinking. “Its called the Mothers’ Market because of us. If men can sell here too, how will it be Mothers’ Market? So we can’t let men work here. My grandmother and mother-in-law, they made the market what it is today. If men come, the character will be lost.