#RightToPray: Women in India fight for access to holy sites

When Rohini Pawar was stopped by the priests at a temple from going inside, she wanted to know why. “Because you are a woman, and women are not allowed inside this temple,” the priest told her.

She was told that this was a “tradition” in her village, Veer, in the Pune district of the western Indian state of Maharashtra—a 400-year-old practice that did not allow women to enter the Mhaskoba temple, dedicated to Kaal Bhairava, an avatar of the Hindu deity Shiva. “I dug around and found out that about 10 temples in my block did not allow women inside,” she said. Though she is an atheist, it bothered her enough to try and mobilize people in the area to oppose this practice. “I know that the Constitution says we are all equal and that this was a violation of our right as women to enter any space.”

In the past year or so, Pawar, who has enlisted as a rural reporter with a community media organization, Video Volunteers, has made several attempts to get inside the sanctum. “I would say I want to see the interiors—what it is like,” she laughs. “Since one of the idols is female, I even said I want to see my mother—the goddess.” But they wouldn’t let her in. Nor did anyone come up to support her. “Women here are scared of breaking a supposedly centuries-old tradition—they worry that their family will come to harm from the gods. If not gods, society will not take kindly to the flaunting of rules.” Now she has posted the number of the district collector of Pune, Maharashtra, on the Video Volunteers site, asking people to call and support her agitation or take action in some manner.

Pawar is one of many women who are demanding their right to enter religious places in India, thus striking a blow to one of the strongest bastions of patriarchy. And they are turning to the courts, citing the Constitution to make their point. So far, the courts have ruled in favor of the women, and temple authorities have had to back down. The fight for equal access to places of worship gave rise to the Twitter hashtag #RightToPray.

In January, hundreds of women undertook a march from Pune to the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district, about 100 miles away, aiming to break the restriction on female worshippers in the inner sanctum. “Our aim was to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the 350-year-old temple, which is forbidden to women,” Trupti Desai, a member of a local women’s rights group, the Bhumata Brigade, told the BBC.

The agitation for women’s entry into places of worship has gained momentum over the last few months. In early May, a woman and her two daughters entered the cave of Baba Balaknath temple at Deot Siddh in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, breaking another centuries-old rule. Women were not allowed in, as Baba Balaknath is believed to be an incarnation of the Hindu god Kartikeya (the elder son of Lord Shiva), who is a bachelor.

On April 6, the Shani Shingnapur temple allowed women to enter the sanctum sanctorum, breaking an old “tradition.” This was done on what is considered an auspicious occasion—Gudi Padwa, the Maharashtrian New Year day—after a ferocious campaign by women’s groups and a resultant directive from the Bombay High Court ordering the state government to take steps to ensure compliance of law, and let women enter. It is the fundamental right of a woman, the court said, and the government has to protect it.

Another high-profile case is the one against the Sabarimala temple, a major Hindu pilgrimage center in Kerala, with an estimated more than 100 million visitors every year. The temple deity is Hindu god Ayyappa, who is supposed to have meditated here after killing a powerful demoness, Mahishi. There’s a ban on the entry of menstruating women (between the ages of 12 and 50) on the grounds that since Lord Ayyappa was a Brahmachari (celibate bachelor), menstruating women will “pollute” the deity. Discrimination against menstruating women is common in many places of worship in India, as they are considered impure. “I remember as a teen, I was told by my mother that I could not go inside the Durga Puja festival [an annual five-day fest celebrating the goddess Durga] when I was menstruating,” says Aditi SenGupta, a journalist in Delhi. “I just stopped telling her when I was menstruating, and would just go inside.” It was a cause for celebration, says SenGupta, when she heard that the Supreme Court had, in a landmark judgement on April 9, ruled that the Sabarimala temple must allow female worshippers.

Places of worship that deny or restrict women’s entry undermine the fight for gender equality and have no constitutional right to do so, said India’s highest court. The judges asked the temple to explain why it bans women. “What right does the temple have to forbid women from entering any part of the temple? Do you to mean to say that menstruation is associated with purity of women? You are making distinction based on purity. ... Now the question is whether the Constitutional principles allow this? Can you deny a woman her right to climb Mount Everest?” asked a three-judge bench.

The Supreme Court bench was acting on a petition filed by the Delhi-based Indian Young Lawyers Association and five women lawyers who had asked that women be allowed entry without age restriction. Members of the lawyers’ association say they have received several death threats over it.

In another case, the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai (built in the 15th century, popular with Muslims and Hindu devotees as well as tourists) is under pressure to overturn a similar ban on women entering its inner sanctum. Noorjehan Niaz and Zakia Soman of the Mulsim women’s rights group Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan have filed a case against the trustees of Haji Ali. “Going to Haji Ali used to be an event when we were kids,” says Niaz. “It was a family outing. When we grew up, we’d still continue our visits—for the peace, and the beauty of that place. We have always been able to touch the mazaar [inner sanctum], pray.”

This was stopped in 2012 when trustees said the move was to ensure “safety and security of women,” based on Shariat provisions. “I experienced a lot of anger. How can they stop a positive tradition? Islam believes in equality. It was going against the spirit of Islam and against equality set by the Quran,” says Niaz. The group’s first line of dialogue was with the trustees. “They refused to talk, and cited all kinds of reasons for the ban—like men being distracted when women bowed down to pray and their pallu/chunis [scarves] fall off! They cited security reasons. All the same reasons being given by authorities across all religions. We tried to reason with them, had a second round of arguments with the state facilitating.” But the trustees did not turn up at a talk that was arranged by the state. Then they had no option but to file a complaint. “It’s been close to two years. July 25th is the final verdict. Let’s see what the court says,” says Niaz. “A forum is being formed within the community to carry on the battle—‘Haji Ali Sab Ke Liye’ [Haji Ali For Everyone].”

All the reasons and excuses given by the people who govern the places of worship have patriarchal overtones that assume that a woman in some way inferior or impure, says women's rights lawyer and pioneer of the women's movement, Flavia Agnes, in her article “Temple or Dargah, Restrictions on Women Are Nothing But Ways of Imposing Patriarchy.”

Another common thread in the explanations assumes women are evil seductresses who have the power to tempt men even while they are engrossed deeply in prayer and worship. “The recurring motif of Eve, who brought about the fall of the mankind by luring Adam into sin and was banished forever from the Garden of Eden, a concept rooted in Judeo-Christian tradition, becomes a theme across different civilizations and religions,” writes Agnes.

The campaigns and court rulings are landmark victories for gender equality in India, where the ruling party, the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have exhibited conservative views when it comes to women’s rights.