India’s top court lifts Hindu temple ban on women of menstruating age

• Sarwar Alam
• 29 September, 2018

By: Sarwar Alam

India’s Supreme Court lifted a ban rooted in a centuries-old tradition that prevented women of menstruating age from entering a prominent Hindu temple in southern Kerala state, upholding rights to equality of worship. The authorities at the Sabarimala temple, which attracts tens of millions of pilgrims every year, have said the ban on women and girls aged from 10 to 50 was essential to the rites related to the temple’s chief deity Ayyappan, considered eternally celibate. In some Hindu communities, menstruating women are regarded as unclean, leading to restrictions and in a few cases outright bans on women of child-bearing…

You do not have access to this content. You need to subscribe.