PUNE: A married woman was prevented from participating in dandiya and other festivities in the Bhatnagar area of Pimpri because of opposing the ritualistic virginity test that women belonging to her community are forced to go through the morning after the wedding night.Several influential people belonging to the community barred Aishwarya Vivek Tamaichikar (23) from taking part in the community festivities on Monday, following which she filed an FIR with the Pimpri police and vowed to continue with the campaign to put an end to the practice.Police have booked eight persons, all members of the jat panchayat, for expelling the woman from the community. Police have invoked provisions of the Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2016, against the jat panchayat members.As part of the test, a married couple has to show evidence of the bride’s virginity on the morning after the wedding night, by letting the community panchayat members examine the bedsheets. The marriage is declared “invalid” if there is no evidence of the bride’s virginity.Two years earlier, another woman had begun a movement, “Stop the V Test”, in protest against the practice. In December 2017 and January this year, newlywed Tamaichikar and husband Vivek took up cudgels against the custom. The campaign soon gained momentum and found some support among the younger generation.The backlash from the conservative older community members was immediate. In May this year, the panchayat imposed a social boycott on her because she had refused to show the bedsheet to them after her wedding night. In June, when she had gone to attend a wedding at Pimpri, she and others were allegedly assaulted by some community members. Aishwarya had filed an FIR, after which seven persons were arrested but later released on bail.“I went to Pimpri on Monday evening to take part in the dandiya event organized by the local mandal, which is controlled by the jat panchayat. Barely a few minutes after I had started playing dandiya, the music was stopped. My mother came rushing to me and asked to leave the venue,” said Tamaichikar, who now leaves in Kharadi.“Even as I stayed back in the pandal, the music did not start. Then an elderly man made an announcement that dandiya will resume only after some members left the pandal. Around 400 people were present in the pandal, but none came forward to support me,” she told TOI.“The music started the moment I left the pandal. It was a a sign that the community has boycotted me. I have support of around 20-30 members from the community. But I am sure that as people get educated, more will join me. The movement that began in December last year is gaining momentum,” said Tamaichikar, a law student.Assistant commissioner of police (Pimpri division) Santish Patil said, “We have registered a case and launched a hunt for the men.”