Women form 385-mile human wall to protest period shaming

It’s 2019, and women don’t play.

This week in Kerala, India, some 5 million women formed a human chain spanning 385 miles, from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram, the BBC reports. The “women’s wall,” as it was called, was a peaceful protest against the centuries-old tradition of barring women of “menstruating age” from the Sabarimala temple, one of India’s holiest shrines.

The period-positive protest lasted about 15 minutes, and though riot police were present, no one was harmed.

Last September, India’s Supreme Court overturned the ban on women ages 10 to 50 as discriminatory, yet Hindu traditionalists have remained unmoved on the issue, believing menstruating women to be impure. Those who support the ban believe the presence of these women is a sign of disrespect toward Lord Ayyappa, for whom Sabarimala is dedicated, who was thought to be celibate.

On Wednesday following the protest, two women ages 42 and 44, accompanied by officers, became the first to enter Sabarimala, CNN reports. Upon their departure, the temple was closed for one hour so priests could perform purity rituals to cleanse the site.

Nearby police used tear gas and water cannon to ward off fundamentalist protesters from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, in Kerala’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram. Progressive protesters from the Communist Party of India-Marxist, which runs Kerala’s local government, were also present to support the women. Again, no injuries were reported.

“There are many, many forms of discrimination which are done in the name of tradition,” Subhashini Ali, vice president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, tells CNN. “It is an issue important for women and democracy.”

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