{"id":3520,"date":"2016-06-03T15:05:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T09:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3520"},"modified":"2016-06-03T15:05:34","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T09:35:34","slug":"supreme-court-sabarimala-protests-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3520","title":{"rendered":"Sabarimala Protests: Are You a \u201cTrue Devotee\u201d If You Continue to Attack Women?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>t\u2019s been two days since two women in their 40s \u2013 Bindu and Kanakadurga \u2013 made history by entering the Sabarimala shrine, going against \u201ctradition\u201d and inciting a fresh round of protests from right-wing parties. Their entry came more than two months after Kerala\u2019s Sabarimala Temple officially opened for women, following the landmark Supreme Court judgement that overturned the centuries-old tradition which denied entry to women between the ages of 10 and 50 years. Women of menstruating age offend Ayyappa, a celibate deity, believe his staunch devotees.\n\nThis led to the abuse and attack on Kairali TV cameraperson Shajila Abdulrahman, who was covering a Sangh Parivar protest against women entering the temple. As Abdulrahman kept the camera rolling, a mob vandalised posters and attacked journalists. She was threatened, heckled, her camera was snatched, and she was kicked on her back. In fact, a picture of her continuing to capture the protest in tears after being attacked went viral. It\u2019s evident that the Sabarimala protests have nothing to do with tradition and everything to do with discrimination against women.\n\nBut much before this practice was declared invalid by the highest court in the country on grounds of gender discrimination and supported women\u2019s freedom to worship, the Sabarimala rulebook raised a host of questions: If a woman does not attain menopause by 50, is she still allowed to go before Ayyappa? And if a menstruating woman enters the temple will Sabarimala and all of Kerala self-destruct? Now that Bindu and Kanakadurga set foot inside the temple\u2019s sacred walls, we finally know.\n\n<\/p>In October, New York Times reporter Suhasini Raj was viciously attacked by the stone-pelting <\/span>mob<\/span><\/a>. She has since decided against returning to Sabarimala. A day after the incident, two women came within half a kilometre of the shrine after braving a five-kilometre uphill hike, but had to head back after being intimidated by 30 priests. These godly men not only blocked their way but also threatened to shut the temple down. A third woman, a tourist, who wanted to see the shrine, was denied police escort because \u2013 get this \u2013 they couldn\u2019t guarantee that they could protect her.<\/span>\n\nBack in October, the Kerala Devaswom Board had decided to file a review petition against the order. Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran said it\u2019s the government\u2019s duty to protect \u201ctrue devotees\u201d but the temple is no place for<\/span> activism<\/span><\/a>. With no apparent irony, the Board has claimed that Sabarimala is not for protests, unless, of course, the protesters are of the right kind. <\/span>\n

Does it take a battalion of holy warriors \u2013 who hurl threats, abuse, and stones at women \u2013 to defend the honour of Ayyappa?<\/blockquote>\nIt\u2019s a catch-22 for a situation that with each passing day makes less and less sense. On one hand, any woman who is the first to visit Sabarimala is proving a point, whether she intends to or not. And on the other, women who meet the standards of \u201creal\u201d devotion would not sully the shrine with their impure existence. Either way, it\u2019s hard to ignore the upshot of this no-women-devotee fallacy: The temple is still the preserve of men, who maintain the status quo by insisting that no woman can be a faithful, devoted worshipper of Ayyappa and enter Sabarimala. The state-wide protests are proof.<\/span>\n\nSo let\u2019s take a look at the \u201cdevoted worshippers\u201d who have spent months attacking women. Does it take a battalion of holy warriors \u2013 who hurl threats, abuse, and stones at women \u2013 to defend the honour of Ayyappa? Is the only real devotee of Ayyappa the one who believes in his religious rights without considering the constitutional rights of others? Is he someone who believes in some fucked-up form of vigilante justice instead of the law of the land? <\/span>\n\nOr, wait a second, maybe this is not about Ayyappa at all.<\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s hard to imagine that a god known for his strict chastity would be threatened by the mere presence of a pubescent child, or that he would call his women devotees impure because of how their bodies work. Instead, <\/span>ordinary men<\/span><\/a> have projected their own worst impulses onto the deity \u2013 men who refuse to see women as worthy or equal or even human, and who cling to the spaces they consider <\/span>theirs<\/span><\/i>. Not Ayappa\u2019s.<\/span>\n\nThe head priest who prevented the women from entering claimed that he has no choice but to stand behind the devotees. These are, after all, the people who keep the diyas lit at Sabarimala. But perhaps, just this once, all the priests and devotees might want to consider standing behind Ayyappa himself. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mob protesting against women entering the Sabarimala Temple attacked a cameraperson who was covering the story. In the past too, stones have been pelted at women. Who are these \u201creal devotees\u201d of Ayyappa, who believe in their religious rights without considering the constitutional rights of others?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":3521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[6680,1132,4510,6529,735],"class_list":["post-3520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-ayyappa","tag-kerala","tag-protests","tag-sabarimala","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nSabarimala Protests: Are You a \u201cTrue Devotee\u201d If You Continue to Attack Women?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A mob protesting against women entering the Sabarimala Temple attacked a cameraperson who was covering the story. In the past too, stones have been pelted at women. Who are these \u201creal devotees\u201d of Ayyappa, who believe in their religious rights without considering the constitutional rights of others?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3520\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sabarimala Protests: Are You a \u201cTrue Devotee\u201d If You Continue to Attack Women?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A mob protesting against women entering the Sabarimala Temple attacked a cameraperson who was covering the story. In the past too, stones have been pelted at women. 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