Sabarimalatemplet in the southern state of Kerala in India have traditionally been closed to women in the ”pre-menopausal age”. A ban that was suspended by India’s Supreme court in september this year, because it said that religious freedom should apply to everyone.
the Decision was met by sharp resistance from conservative hindu activists have protested against women is allowed in the holy temple, and thrown stones at visitors who tried to enter the building.
the Kerala communist coalition a demonstration in which women stood in a long wall by the state to show their support for the Supreme court’s decision, reports the BBC.
the Wall was 620 kilometers long and to have stretched from the northern part of Kasaragod to the southern parts of Thiruvananthapuram. Officials said for the BBC that about five million women gathered on The highways to form the wall.
” this is a great way to say how powerful women are, and how we can empower ourselves and help each other. Of course I support women of all ages to be able to visit the temple, ” says the demonstrator Kavita Das to the BBC.
According to the organisers of the demonstration, the aim is to fight for equality and to meet the pressure from the högergrupper who try to stop women from visiting Sabarimalatemplet.
as a national issue in India since the country’s ruling party BJB has expressed to the Supreme court’s decision is an attack on hindu values. The issue has also become important in the face of the upcoming elections in India.
Hinduism see menstruating women as unclean and they are excluded from certain religious rituals. Women get to visit the vast majority of the temples so long as they do not have the mens.
The groups demonstrating against the HD’s decision mean that it goes against the god of the temple Ayyappans like. According to the faith lived Ayyappan in celibacy and, therefore, prohibited menstruating women from visiting the temple.
Very few women have tried to visit the temple since the decision. In October escorted the two women out of over a hundred police officers to get in, but they needed to turn back just metres from the Sabarimalatemplet.
the Protests against the women in the temple to escalate
Free for women in the most sacred temple in India
