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NEW DELHI (AP) – On Friday, dozens of Hindu priests joined conservative protesters to prevent women of menstrual age from accessing one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites. .
Priests threatened to stop rituals and prayers in the Sabarimala Temple, a hill in southern Kerala, if women aged 10 to 50 were trying to enter the shrine.
"We decided to lock the temple, hand over the keys and leave. I stand with the devotees. I do not have any other choice, "said Kandararu Rajeevaru, chief priest of Sabarimala temple.
Two young women, a journalist and an activist, were forced to turn around after reaching the temple compound under a heavy police escort.
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Kadakampalli Surendran, Kerala State Minister, said the temple was not a place of activism and that the government was not responsible for the safety of the activists.
The minister's statement was made despite the state government, led by the Indian Communist Party (Marxist), which pledged to implement the Supreme Court's decision.
Hundreds of protesters have blocked the entry of women of menstruating age since the reopening of the temple on Wednesday after the three-week Supreme Court ruling that equality is the priority, regardless of age and gender. sex.
The temple will remain open for monthly prayers from five days until October 22nd.
Protesters promised to petition the Supreme Court next week, demanding a review of its September 28 ruling allowing all women to enter the temple. They claim that the celibacy of the temple deity, Lord Ayyappa, is protected by the Indian Constitution and that women of all ages can gather in other Hindu temples. Some Hindu figures consider that women who have their period are impure.
The entry of women aged 10 to 50 in the centenary temple was banned informally for many years, then by law in 1972.
In 1991, the High Court of Kerala upheld the ban. The Supreme Court of India lifted the ban last month, saying that equality was the rule, regardless of age and sex.
