Sabarimala verdict a win over patriarchy: Activists
MUMBAI: Women’s rights activists in the city hailed the Supreme Court (SC) verdict of allowing women, irrespective of their age, inside Sabarimala temple in Kerala. For centuries, girls and women between the age of 10 and 50 have been banned from entering the temple because they menstruate.
Trupti Desai, founder of Bhumata Brigade, who entered the Shani Shingnapur’s sanctum sanctorum in 2016, where entry of women was forbidden, said the SC verdict on Sabarimala was a victory for women from all religions.
“The decision will go a long way in changing people’s mind set that girls and women are impure during their periods. It is a big victory, especially for women who have been fighting patriarchy in religious systems for years,” she said.
Noorjehan Niaz, founder of Bharatiya Mahila Muslim Andolan (BMMA), which had challenged ban on women from entering Haji Ali dargah, said the decision empowers women who have questioned age-old religious practices.
“We welcome the SC’S decision. For years, religious institutions have been controlled by men, but the SC’S verdict clearly challenges it. But there is a long way ahead because so many dargahs and temples don’t allow women inside,” she said.
Dr Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, member of Satya Shodhak, a Mumbai-based Roman Catholic feminist collective, said many such discriminatory practices against women have a so-called religious basis.
She said, “This discrimination is ‘divinely sanctioned, pleasing to the god’. What is interesting in the Sabarimala verdict is that it highlights the difference between constitutional rights and religious rights.”