Two women, accompanied by plainclothes police officers under the cover of darkness early on Wednesday morning, entered a centuries-old Hindu shrine in southern India that has long barred women of childbearing age. Their effort was part of a continuing push for women\u2019s equality in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response, protests broke out around Kerala, the state where the shrine, the Sabarimala Temple, is located. According to local news reports<\/a>, the police moved relatives of one of the women who entered the temple into a safe house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When news broke that the women had\u00a0made it inside<\/a>\u00a0the temple, a Hindu priest shut down the complex for \u201cpurification rituals,\u201d which\u00a0typically occur<\/a>\u00a0when blood is spilled or children accidentally urinate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several dozen women have tried to enter the temple since October, after India\u2019s Supreme Court ruled that the ban on women of childbearing age was unconstitutional. But\u00a0nonemade it inside<\/a>\u00a0as thousands of protesters blocked the temple\u2019s entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the hours before the two women entered the temple on Wednesday, the Communist Party of India, which governs Kerala, organized other demonstrations \u2014 partly about access to the temple but also as a broad opportunity, organizers said, to highlight gender equality in a country recently named the world\u2019s most dangerous for women<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On New Year\u2019s Day, a \u201chuman chain\u201d \u2014 a\u00a0frequent form of protest<\/a>\u00a0in India \u2014 stood shoulder to shoulder along highways in southern India, creating a wall 300 miles long, according to Communist Party officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Party officials said 5.5 million people were in that chain. The local police authorities estimated the number at three million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are taking the pledge that we will uphold renaissance values,\u201d the protesters chanted. \u201cWe will stand for equality for women! We will fight for secularism!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the fall,\u00a0India\u2019s nascent #MeToo movement<\/a>\u00a0suddenly jolted forward. Dozens of women in cities posted graphic stories on social media of sexual assault and harassment by public figures in journalism, entertainment, the arts and the\u00a0highest levels of government<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their protests were unusually successful, and many of the accused men resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Kerala, after the women entered the temple, protesters forced shops to close, blocked traffic, pelted stones at the police, who fired tear gas canisters, and vandalized a government office in one district. At least a few police officers were injured, according to local media reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Habeeb Ullah, an officer stationed near the temple, said the two women, whose names were given only as Bindu and Kanakadurga, were \u201creal heroines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday Subhashini Ali, a Communist Party member, called out \u201cevil forces\u201d<\/a> that she said were trying to manage women\u2019s choices by creating \u201ca floodlike crisis in the name of casteism, tradition and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can speak for ourselves,\u201d she said onstage at an event in the city of Kochi. \u201cWe want our rights, our equality, and we have to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The backgrounds of those forming the human wall were mixed, participants said. Women came in saris, burqas, nuns\u2019 habits and jeans. Men joined as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Participants raised their arms with clenched fists. Some talked about increasing quotas for women in government posts and improving access for Dalits, low-caste Indians once known as untouchables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In some areas, participants said, crowds swelled to such an extent that people had to form rows several people deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was not just a wall,\u201d said Sajitha Manaakat Veettil, 32, a teacher who participated from Kerala. \u201cIt was a great wall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though Kerala\u2019s development measures are better than most Indian states \u2014 attributable to higher levels of education and literacy \u2014 many participants were realistic about the challenges women face across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of India\u2019s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, which is center-right but has ties to Hindu nationalist groups, called news of the women\u2019s entry into the temple a \u201cblack day.\u201d Other parties also protested, demanding the resignation of top officials in Kerala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n B. Gopalakrishnan, a B.J.P. spokesman in Kerala, said that some women joining the wall had been forced to attend. His cousin\u2019s employer, he said, had told her that if she did not participate in the protest, she would lose work opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also said some people had been bribed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is not a woman\u2019s wall \u2014 it is a compulsion wall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bhakti Pasrija Sethi, a lawyer in New Delhi who was involved in challenging the temple\u2019s entry restrictions, dismissed those assertions, saying that the wall was an \u201cindicator of the strong will of ladies who believe the ban is a superstition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last 24 hours offered a peek at a more inclusive year, Ms. Sethi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a harbinger of further good things,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s great.\u201d Two women, accompanied by plainclothes police officers under the cover of darkness early on Wednesday morning, entered a centuries-old Hindu shrine in southern India that has long barred women of childbearing age. Their effort was part of a continuing push for women\u2019s equality in the country. In response, protests broke out around Kerala, the state where the shrine, the Sabarimala… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-2842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2843,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842\/revisions\/2843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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