'Women wall' in India calls for gender equality

NEW DELHI, India - Hundreds of thousands of women from across India's southern state of Kerala lined up on Tuesday to form a human chain called "women wall" to uphold gender equality and renaissance values, officials said.

The organizers said over 5 million women participated in the event. The claim, however, could not be independently confirmed.

The wall according to organizers was formed from Kasargod district in the northern part of the state to Thiruvananthapuram, the southernmost district and capital city in a bid to oppose recent protests in Sabarimala after the government decided to implement a Supreme Court verdict, allowing all women to pray at the Ayyappa shrine.

Last year, India's Supreme Court struck down the archaic belief that prevented women of menstruating age to enter the Lord Ayyappa shrine in the state.

"Religion cannot be the cover to deny women the right to worship," the court said in its decision.

Prior to the court order women were prevented from entering the temple.

The restrictions were based on the belief that menstruating women are "impure" and the deity Ayyappa is celibate.

Many women take a vow of celibacy for 41 days before embarking on a trek through the mountains to the temple.

However, the court order triggered protests and women's passage to the temple was blocked by protesters.

Tuesday's event was organized by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF), along with 176 other sociopolitical organizations.

"Participants across Kerala took a pledge to protect the state from the right-wing offensives on its renaissance tradition and values," a CPI-M spokesman said. "Women from all classes and cultural backgrounds formed the bulwark against the offensive of conservative right-wing on women's rights."

Women from all walks of life stood alongside the highway for 15 minutes before dispersing.

Xinhua

(China Daily 01/03/2019 page12)