Hindu hardliners who want to keep female worshipers out of a historic Indian temple forced two women to abandon their attempt to enter the sacred site on Friday despite a 100-strong riot police escort.
The Sabarimala Temple in Kerala has become the focus of a battle over gender equality, pitting religious traditionalists against progressive voices pushing for a more liberal Hinduism.
A Supreme Court decision to end a ban on women of “menstruating age” – those between 10 and 50 years – from visiting has sparked violent demonstrations on the roads leading to the complex.
On Friday, journalist Kavitha Jakkal and activist Rehana Fatima were just 500 metres from the final 18 golden steps leading to the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala when they had to beat a retreat.
“We have told the female devotees about the situation, they will now be going back,” S. Sreejith, a senior police official in Kerala state, told local media at the hilltop site.
