Indian women are redefining who has the last word with regard to religious traditions. In the past year, Hindu and Muslim women, fed up with the male appropriation of religion, have appealed to the courts for justice.
On Nov. 29 last year over 100 Muslim women and activists entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Haji Ali Dargah which houses the tomb of 14th-century saint, Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, after the Bombay High Court struck down a ban imposed by its trustees five years ago.
The trustees said the earlier practice was un-Islamic and the ban would also avoid the intermingling of men and women in an enclosed space that they claimed was a source of mental disturbance to man and physical discomfort to women.
After repeated attempts to dialogue with the trustees and the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission failed, women from the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (Indian Muslim women’s forum) filed a petition in the Bombay High Court.
After eight hearings the court ruled that the trust “had no right to discriminate,” and “the right to manage the trust cannot override the right to practise religion itself.” It also asked the State and the trust to ensure the “safety and security of women” entering the shrine.
The trust’s appeal to the Supreme Court, was struck down and the shrine’s management was directed by the top court in India “to do some secular introspection and come up with a progressive stand on women’s entry” into the shrine.
Prior to this, Hindu women had secured their own victory. In March last year, they managed to overturn a 400-yearold tradition of discrimination against them through a petition in the Bombay High Court.
Women activists appealed to the court to remove a ban on the entry of women of menstrual age to Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra State. They argued that the ban was arbitrary, illegal and in violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.
According to The Hindu, a reputed national daily, a “total of 10 Supreme Court judges, sitting in various combinations, have already heard the case in as many years.” In April this year the bench was unexpectedly changed making it the sixth to hear the case.
Already questions are being asked about whether Hindu women, who have been competently trained in the Vedas and temple rituals, have a constitutional right to appointments as priests in temples especially those that are the property of the state and administered by the government. At the root of all these developments is the taboo that surrounds menstruating women.
When these cases first hit the news, I was asked if there were similar restrictions on the entry of menstruating women in the Catholic Church. On the face of it, no, but the truth is that the supposed ritual uncleanliness of women is also ingrained in the Catholic psyche, and prohibitions based on it have remained in official church law for the past 700 years…..
Astrid Lobo Gajiwala
