Women’s rights violated at 200-year-old dargah

KENDRAPARA: Mumbai’s famous Haji Ali Dargah may have reconciled to the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women, but a 200-year-old dargah in Kendrapara town continues to be out of bounds for women. 

A 54-year-old Rukshuna Khatun worships at the shrine by sitting outside the premises. Like Rukhsuna, many women offer prayers by peeping through a window whereas male devotees are allowed to enter its sanctum sanctorum. 

The much revered Mansoor Baba Dargah, built over the grave of Baba Mansoor, openly flaunts the ban with a notice board proclaiming that women are not allowed inside. The practice that has been going on since long has now drawn charges of discrimination on gender basis with activists protesting the ban.
“The prohibition of women from entering the sanctum sanctorum, imposed by the shrine’s committee, violates Articles 14, 15 and 25  of the Constitution,” alleged Mrutyunjaya Samal, a lawyer of Kendrapara. He said women should be permitted to enter the sanctum sanctorum like men as per an order of the apex court on Haji Ali shrine.

On the other hand, Sarafat Ali, one of the managing committee members of the dargah said,  “It is a sin as per Islam for women to be in close proximity of a male Muslim saint’s grave due to which they are not allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine. But women have every right to pray outside the shrine. This dargah is a symbol of communal harmony as each day large number of Muslims and Hindus offer prayer at the shrine.”  

“Even 68 years after Babasaheb Ambedkar drafted the Indian Constitution, women continue to be discriminated in many parts of the State. They are compelled to follow the dehumanised code of gender bias due to which their fate remains unchanged in many areas including Kendrapara,” said Ranjan Das, a human rights activist of Kendrapara. Three months back, the Supreme Court also lifted the centuries-old practice of prohibiting women to enter the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala.