Women rights activists term SC verdict 'positive', slam shrine trust for 'ensuring women are not allowed entry'
Even as the Mumbai's Haji Ali Dargah trust told the Supreme Court on Monday that women will now on be granted access near the inner chamber of the shrine, a group fighting for the same, slammed the shrine trust for "going to the extent of restricting men's entry to ensure that women were not allowed in after a certain limit".
"As such, the development is positive. Our stand has been vindicated. Both the Supreme Court (SC) and the Bombay High Court are supporting our fight for equal treatment and rights. We have not seen the order but the Dargah Trust should have respected the Bombay High Court order and ensured that the status quo (before the entry of women was banned) was maintained. It only goes to show how rigid they are," said Zakia Soman, co-convenor of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) which filed the petition.
At the Supreme Court on Monday, the Trust said that it believes in complete equality between men and women and has decided to grant equal access to both to the inner chamber of Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari.
"We have submitted ourselves to the SC and have come up with a progressive report. No follower was earlier allowed to touch the mazaar, and it will remain so. Men and women are equal as per the religion and the Constitution. We will rework the area so that both men and women are allowed to a certain extent," trustee Sohail Khandwani told the Court.
Meanwhile, BMMA co-convenor Noorjehan Safia Niaz said, "We will wait for the SC order copy to see where we stand. We will get a clearer picture then, and only then decide on our future course of action." The Apex Court had granted four weeks' time to the Trust to make requisite infrastructural and other changes for compliance of the Bombay High Court order on the issue.
Advocate Raju Moray, who represented BMMA in the High Court, said, "Not allowing access to men is not the same as allowing access to women. It certainly cannot be termed as 'restoration of the status quo ante', as directed by the Bombay High Court on August 26. The HC order is thus being bypassed, rather than being implemented. The Trust's idea of gender justice is obviously different from ours, though technically it may be in consonance with the Constitutional right to equality."
Trustee Khandwani, however, claimed the group did not understand their affidavit and the SC order.
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