{"id":3904,"date":"2016-05-20T14:40:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T09:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2026-07-17T20:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:18:14","slug":"womens-wall-kerala-me-too-sabarimala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3904","title":{"rendered":"How the Women\u2019s Wall in Kerala is Taking the Politics of #MeToo Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A<\/span><\/p><\/div>

round the time that <\/span>Narendra Modi<\/span><\/a>, the Prime Minister of the biggest democracy in the world mistook gender inequality as a marker of <\/span>\u201ctradition\u201d<\/span><\/a> in the year\u2019s definitive interview, women in Kerala decided to point out the irony. Almost five million women lined up on the streets across national highways in Kerala, from Thiruvananthapuram to the northern district of Kasaragod to form a 620-km human wall.<\/span>\n\nAround 4 pm on the first day of this new year, women from different walks of life \u2013 homemakers, women in hijabs, students, middle-aged women, teachers, farm labourers, doctors, actors, lawyers, and transwomen\u2013 stood holding hands for 15 minutes in a historic display of protest against India\u2019s patriarchal culture. A culture that still bars the entry of women into a temple despite a Supreme Court order. A culture that encourages violent protests and shutdowns in the state. A culture endorsed by India\u2019s Prime Minister.<\/span>\n\nThe lakhs of participants also took a <\/span>pledge<\/span><\/a> at the event, which read, \u201cKerala was once called a lunatic asylum. Today it\u2019s known as God\u2019s own country thanks to the social reformation movements. Orthodoxy had always stood against our surge towards a progressive society. But we had thwarted their plans.\u201d And in some parts of the state, men too formed a human chain on the opposite side of the road in a display of solidarity. <\/span>\n\nThe Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat termed the state-sponsored Vanitha Mathil (Women\u2019s Wall) as a resistance against \u201cthe dark forces that want to push women back into the dark ages\u201d. Presumably, the wall was a response to the BJP-backed \u201cAyyappa Jyothi\u201d event, where right-wing supporters formed a chain to protest against the Supreme Court\u2019s <\/span>Sabarimala<\/span><\/a> verdict that lifted the temple\u2019s age-old ban on women.<\/span>\n\nThe sea of <\/span>women<\/span><\/a> who came out to demand equality resulted in the fourth largest human chain ever, one of the oldest peaceful forms of protest. It\u2019s also touted as the arrival of a new brand of progressive and feminist politics in Kerala, backed by leaders from political parties, socio-political organisations, and ordinary people. <\/span>\n\n\"\"\n

\n

The sea of women who came out to demand equality resulted in the fourth largest human chain ever, one of the oldest peaceful forms of protest.<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\nCrisscrossing 14 districts of Kerala, the Women\u2019s Wall was a fitting companion piece to the women-led <\/span>#MeToo<\/span><\/a> wave that engulfed India in the preceding few months. Like #MeToo, the Women\u2019s Wall was as much an expression of women that cut through barriers such as age, religion, caste, and class, as it was their means to protest inequality. However, unlike its predecessor, the Women\u2019s Wall was entirely an offline movement that didn\u2019t need to rely on the reach of social media. <\/span>\n\nInstead, it took the politics of #MeToo forward by giving the plea for equality a face \u2013 rather, several faces. When <\/span>#MeToo<\/span><\/a> was first making its presence known, the accusations levelled against it were that it was entirely an elite urban women\u2019s movement, with absolutely no bearing on the lives of \u201cregular\u201d women. Yet, it is difficult not to make the correlation between #MeToo and Women\u2019s Wall \u2013 would the latter have been possible without the former? This was possible evidence of how one movement, over time, can percolate down from supposedly elite progenitors to spark actual, grassroots change. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n\nYet, in true BJP fashion, the state leadership <\/span>labelled <\/span><\/a>the Women\u2019s Wall a \u201ctotal failure\u201d and a waste of government funds and machinery even though Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had clarified that state funds wouldn\u2019t be used. <\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s not difficult to grasp why the Women\u2019s Wall might\u2019ve ruffled the BJP\u2019s feathers. If #MeToo was a mere warning to all the men men abusing their positions of power, then the Women\u2019s Wall was an unequivocal message. That women refuse to be exploited as pawns by politicians who can\u2019t seem to understand the definition of gender equality. That women will now refuse to allow men to decide which rights can be granted to them and which ones can be snatched away. And that if it comes to a show of strength, women will take to the streets in unity \u2013 across the country, in Mumbai\u2019s Shivaji Park and outside Kerala House in Delhi \u2013 to guarantee that the equality promised to them in the Constitution becomes a reality. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 620-km Women\u2019s Wall, protesting against the tradition that bans women from entering Sabarimala Temple despite the SC verdict, is a fitting companion piece to the #MeToo wave. Like #MeToo, the Wall is as much an expression of women that cut through barriers, as it is their means to protest inequality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":3907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender"],"yoast_head":"\nHow the Women\u2019s Wall in Kerala is Taking the Politics of #MeToo Forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 620-km Women\u2019s Wall, protesting against the tradition that bans women from entering Sabarimala Temple despite the SC verdict, is a fitting companion piece to the #MeToo wave. 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