The Bombay high court has issued an unambiguous order that the law must be upheld and women must be allowed to enter Maharashtra’s Shani Shinganpur temple.
The Bombay high court has issued an unambiguous order that the law must be upheld and women must be allowed to enter Maharashtra’s Shani Shinganpur temple. A fundamental issue of gender equality has been addressed by the judges. Activists and lawyers who took up the issue with particular reliance on the Maharashtra Hindu Places of Worship (Entry Authorisation) Act of 1958 have succeeded in bringing down another male bastion centuries old. Such obscurantism existed in ancient times, but it has no place in modern days when the right to equality has been well established in most democratic societies. The judges have challenged the government to make a statement if it is worried about the sanctity of a deity. Of course, the battle is just beginning because to continue with the practice of not allowing women to climb a platform near the rock deity, the temple has now barred everyone from getting on to that platform.
Such gender-discriminatory practices are not particular to any one religion. A struggle is on about entry of women to the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai as well, and unless the trust there is able to prove that the ban is part of a religious practice with reference to the Quran, it would have to allow women to enter. The final frontier might be the Ayyappan temple in Sabarimala, which prohibits females of a certain age entering. The argument there might be trickier as the deity’s sanctity might be used as a ploy to keep menstruating women out. Truth to tell, there is nothing in spirituality to sustain such gender prejudices but the fact that religious practices have been shaped by men.
