The fight for equality of the sexes is far from over. It may just be starting, though, with breakthroughs in Shani Shingnapur, Nashik’s Trimbakeshwar temple and Lucknow’s Eidgah Aishbagh over women being allowed to pray at par with men. The Bombay High Court’s ruling Friday allowing women to worship again in the inner sanctum of Haji Ali Dargah is a significant development, though it comes with a six-week stay, allowing the trust to move the Supreme Court. Men will insist on preserving their privileges, even if these have been foisted on the false premise of male orthodoxy. What defeats their excuses straightaway is that women had worshipped in the sanctum as late as in 2012. What changed the old equitable order was clearly obscurantism.
It seems simple enough to suggest that there is a universal right to pray, that is being prevented in some shrines only by misplaced male patriarchy. To counter this is a great challenge as at the core of such bans is male hegemony over women, with the aim of giving them a lesser role in society. What is most heartening about this campaign is that women of all religions are at the forefront of the battle in demanding equality over the right to religious worship. The same argument will come up in Sabarimala, where the reasons for keeping menstruating women out are specious, yet clouded by religious obscurantism, so even the state’s Marxist government is wary of intervening. It’s time right-minded men too stepped in to ensure a more equal world.
