#HappyToBleed campaign lead by activist Nikita Azad, is picking steam across the country
Nikita Azad
Highly outraged by a senior official of the Travancore Devaswom Board, Prayar Gopalakrishnan’s statement asking for a scanner to check if women are menstruating before being allowed to enter the Sabarimala shrine, the #HappyToBleed campaign lead by gender-rights activist Nikita Azad, is gaining momentum with Chennaiites also. Reacting strongly, girls from across the country have besieged social media with placards and posters conveying their palpable anger. Stirring a hornet’s nest, Gopalakrishnan opined that women who menstruate are “impure” and therefore shouldn’t be allowed inside the temple. Although he retracted his statement shortly and played the blame game of being “misquoted”, the damage was however done.
20-year-old Nikita Azad from Patiala, Punjab, said that she started the campaign because the fact that women are discriminated because they menstruate, irked her. “The statement made by the temple official was the immediate reason for me to launch #HappyToBleed, but otherwise also we regularly see women face discrimination because they menstruate... in their homes as well. It’s just a form of patriarchy, which is associated with women across the world,” she says. Adding to it, “I’m actually a bit disappointed with the way the campaign has gone —it hasn’t reached rural and working class women, who don’t even has access to sanitary napkins,” she shares.
“This isn’t an isolated issue; it should not be seen as separate from the other forms of patriarchy we have in our society,” she strongly felt. There’s not just a religious angle to menstruation, but even a scientific angle to it says Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, an indologist. “Will God be unhappy if a menstruating female devotee visits him? It is hypocritical to blame a woman for a biological phenomenon. At the centre of this relentless humiliation is the patriarchal distortion of scriptures that laid down few social restrictions for the menstruating woman — only to protect her,” he says.
Illustrating with examples, Nrisingha adds, “Shastra forbade women from entering the kitchen, or undertaking any physical work because the less she exerts herself, the more rest she gets during menstruation. These rules were more to do with the science of life. Unfortunately, over the years, they have been distorted under Brahminical pressure, leaving the woman to deal with the ‘impurity’ tag. I say, educate the man, re-interpret shastra and change society.”
Poet and activist Meena Kandasamy posted a photo on Facebook, which said, “God Do not look between my legs. Okay! (sic). “I’m proud of what happens with my body, I do not need any god or his henchmen priests telling me what I do with my body. This whole thing is taboo — using menstruation as an excuse to keep women away from religious roles must go,” she feels.
While we ask men why religion continues to abet the constant alienation of women during menstruation, Rahul Easwar, who is the grandson of Tantri Kandararu Maheswararu says, “It is great to know that youngsters like Nikita Azad are speaking out against taboos and voicing their concerns, and I applaud it. However, Sabarimala’s history, which can be rounded off as something that spans 5,000 years, has denied women the right to enter the temple only to honour the fact that the God who resides at Sabarimala is a celibate. There is no conspiracy against women at the temple and neither is there any idea of ‘periods’ being considered ‘impure.’ Women below the age of 10 and above 50 have always been permitted “
He adds saying, “It is unfortunate that a senior official made such a comment, however the denial of women that does exist in the temple isn’t discrimination. The Attukal Temple, which is referred to as women’s Sabarimala, organises Pongala every year where men are not allowed to participate in it. You don’t see men protesting against it, calling it discrimination. What exists is a differentiation and not discrimination. They are two different concepts,” he concludes.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
Next Story
