January 01, 2026 08:13 pm (IST)
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Muslim women persist with their demand to enter the sanctum of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai
Mumbai, Jan 29 (IBNS): Following intervention by the Maharashtra chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, in favour of the women's demand to enter the sanctum of the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar, the Muslim women in Mumbai are also pressing with their demand that they be allowed to enter the sanctum of the city's Haji Ali Dargah.
In Mumbai, Muslim women, with placards in their hands, have been staging protests in favour of their demand. They also held a meeting at the Azad Maidan.
A Muslim women's rights group,Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), has filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court challenging the ban imposed by the Dargah in 2011 by which women cannot enter the mausoleum.
According to media reports, one of the trustees of the Dargah has said that the ban has been imposed for the safety of the women, so that they are not forced to share space with male visitors.
On Jan 18, the Bombay High Court has said that it will wait for the Supreme Court's ruling on entry of women in Sabarimala temple of Kerala before giving its ruling on the plea by the rights group.
Early in February, the Supreme Court will be giving its ruling on a petition which has sought entry for all women and girls in Kerala's Sabarimala temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa; women between the age of 10 and 50 are banned from entering the ancient temple as it does not allow girls after attaining puberty to enter the premises.
After the police and local people had stopped a group of women activists from entering the Shani Shingapur Temple in Maharashtra, a ban in vogue for centuries, the state's chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, had sided with the women and asked the temple's board members to settle the matter through a dialogue.
In a sharp contrast to these protests, in early January, the board members of the Parsuram Temple in Garhwal's Jaunsar Bawar region (Uttarakhand) overturned a centuries-old tradition of banning women and Dalits from entering the temple and said any one was welcome to enter the temple.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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