Major Hindu Temple Can't Ban Menstruating Women, India's Supreme Court Rules
Major Hindu Temple Cant Ban Menstruating Women, Indias Supreme Court Rules
Keralas Sabarimala Temple will be open to all women, regardless of whether they might be on their period.
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Indias Supreme Court has lifted a centuries-old ban on women who could potentially be on their periods from entering a popular Hindu pilgrimage site.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra said in the 4-1 ruling Friday that Sabarimala Temples restrictions on women could not be considered an essential religious practice.
All devotees are equal, and there cannot be any discrimination on the basis of gender, Misra said, according to NDTV.
D.Y. Chandrachud, a Supreme Court justice who concurred with Misra, said that religion cant be the cover to deny women the right to worship.
To treat women as children of a lesser God is to blink at constitutional morality, Chandrachud said.
The ruling was the latest in a series of landmark progressive decisions from Indias top court. On Thursday, the court struck down a colonial-era law about adultery. Last month, the Supreme Court decriminalized gay sex.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/prominent-hindu-temple-cant-ban-menstruating-women-indian-supreme-court-rules_us_5bb28495e4b027da00d67d10
In the meantime, Keralas government will be attempting to make the temple more accommodating for female devotees, according to NDTV ― installing separate washrooms and baths and increasing the number of female police officers at the site.
Other Indian religious sites have also been opened up to women through recent court cases. In 2016, the Hindu temple Shani Shingnapur and the Muslim Haji Ali shrine in the state of Maharashtra were both independently ordered to lift their gender-based bans, according to the BBC.
Sadhana, an American coalition of progressive Hindus, called the Supreme Courts decision an important and progressive step in removing the stigma around menstruation in Hindu communities.
No human is pure or impure in the eyes of god, the coalition wrote on Facebook. We are all divine.