‘Haji Ali, Sabarimalai our next targets’
Activist TRUPTI DESAI, the co-founder of Bhaumata Brigade, is relentlessly fighting all barriers to let women enter holy places where they are restricted. In conversation with MINAL
SANCHETI, she talks about her campaign against not allowing women to come close to the sanctum sanctorum of the Haji Ali shrine. Excerpts
After Shani Shingnapur, Kolhapur and Trimbakeshwar temple, what will be the next destination?
After Haji Ali, our next destination is Sabarimala Temple. We demand that every temple in this country should allow women to enter. We will even meet PM Narendra Modi and request the Central government to regulate a policy that allows women to enter all the holy places in the country.
What is the attitude of the state government towards your campaign after the High Court’s decision?
In the beginning, the State government and Kiranji (Kiran Bedi, BJP leader) supported us. But later, when the Hindutva organisations started opposing us, the state government was also supporting them. Somewhere it felt that the government is taking sides of both the arguments. Now, because of our successful campaign and after the High Court’s decision, the State Government had to accept the new law. The temples are now open for women to enter.
Are you working with Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan? Are you entering the Dargah with them?
Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan has filed a petition against the matter of women being prohibited to enter the Haji Ali mosque, in the High Court. Hence they cannot participate in the protest as this will be an act of disrespect towards the court. I have started a forum, ‘Haji Ali Sabkeliye’ (Haji Ali for Everyone). There are 20 to 40 organisations that have joined us, including organizations belonging to Muslim women as well as women from other communities. BMMA is supporting us but they cannot join in the campaign as they have filed the petition.
Women in India are deprived of so many basic necessities. Why did you pick the particular matter of restrictions against women entering Holy places?
On 29th of November, a woman went inside the Shani Shingnapur temple and touched the idol. The villagers and the trustees of the temple held a meeting and claimed that God had become impure. They even performed certain rituals to purify the temple and the god.
When I watched the news, I felt that even we are devotees of the god and give offerings and do pujas. How can the God, who was born from a woman’s womb, become impious because of a woman’s touch? That’s when we felt that there’s a need to raise our voice against the custom.
A temple is a place where you go to pray to god with all the faith. If temples don’t have place for women then where else can they get place. The very fact that in 21st century we have to fight against gender inequality is very sad. If God never discriminated, then who gave rights to the trustees and villagers to discriminate?
There are 3 percent of temples where women are not allowed to enter. Even in small villages, women are forbidden to participate and join gram panchayats. In the 21st century, women are as successful as males in many fields. Yet when it comes to respecting their position in this male-dominated society, we are lacking.
What are your expectations from the campaign?
I am very positive about the campaign because till 2011, women were allowed to go near the mazaar. It was only when the new trustees came, that they changed the rule. This is absolutely wrong because the same trustees look after the Mahim Dargah, where women are allowed to go till the mazaar. Then why are they not allowing it in Haji Ali Dargah?
This is not a tradition but a rule imposed by them. With this campaign, we will stop this tradition and I think within 2 or 3 months, the trustees will have to allow women to enter the mosque and go till the mazaar.
We are expecting that the campaign will spread awareness about the issue. When we were protesting at Shani Shingnapur, Kolhapur and Trimbakeshwar, there were many women who were opposing us. They were still blindly following the old traditions that are against women’s rights. So we aim to enlighten such people about the issue. You must have seen how we were detained by the police so many times. Yet we didn’t stop fighting and if we have the strong will, we can pull off anything.