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Many protesters against women entering the temple are women themselves
Thousands of people in Kerala state, south of India, are protesting against women of any age who are entering for the first time in one of the most sacred temples in the country. ;Hinduism.
The Sabarimala Temple prohibited women of "menstruation" age – between the ages of 10 and 50 – until the lifting of the ban by the Supreme Court last month.
But protesters attacked vehicles carrying women journalists and prevented a woman from entering the temple.
Tensions can increase as more and more women try to enter.
Hinduism considers women who have their periods as impure and prevents them from participating in religious rituals. The temple of Sabarimala was to open its doors to all women Wednesday at 17:00 IST (11:30 GMT).
- Enough, that's enough: Indian women are fighting to enter the temples
Security forces have been deployed and have already prevented many Hindu groups from preventing women from entering the temple. Clashes between the police and protesters have also been reported, but no one was injured.
Among the protesters are also many women – they participated in rallies, blocked roads and checked vehicles heading to the temple to see if there were women between 10 and 50 years old.
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Female protesters check vehicles heading to the temple
Each year, millions of male enthusiasts climb a steep hill to visit the sanctuary, which is believed to be around 800 years old. They undertake a rigorous 41-day fast before beginning the pilgrimage.
While most Hindu temples allow women to come in as long as they do not have their period, the Sabarimala Temple is unusual in that it is one of the few that does not exist. Not at all allow women of a large age group.
- Millions of Hindu faithful walking through India
The campaign to allow women to enter the temple gained momentum in 2016 after a student rally. They were outraged by the Sabarimala temple leader's statement that he would allow women to enter only after a machine was invented to detect if they were "pure" – which means they were not menstruating .
At the time, Nikita Azad, who had launched the campaign, told the BBC that there was no "opportune moment" to visit a temple and that women should have the right to go "where they want and when they want it".
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The authorities of Sabarimala say that they do not want women to "distract" the temple deity
The petitioners who asked the Supreme Court to lift the ban said that this custom violates the equality guaranteed by the Indian constitution. They added that this was detrimental to women and their right to worship.
Proponents of the ban argued that the practice had been in effect for centuries and that it was not necessary to change it now.
On September 28, the court quashed the ban, calling it "unconstitutional". The decision immediately triggered protests, which have since intensified.
It is the third religious site in India where women now have the right to enter through judicial intervention. The courts had previously ordered the leaders of the Shani Shingapur Hindu Temple and the Haji Ali Muslim Shrine, both located in the state of Maharashtra, in the west of the country, to allow women to enter the city. l & # 39; inside.
