Women stood should-to-shoulder across the national highways
Millions of women took part in this campaign led by the LDF government following massive protests by right-wing parties and a section of devotees over the government's decision to implement the Supreme Court order, allowing women of all ages to offer prayers at Sabarimala.
The event comes days after thousands of devotees lit 'Ayyappa Jyothies' (lighting of sacred lamps) and lined up from Hosangadi in Kasargod to Kanyakumari, vowing to protect the age-old customs and traditions of Sabarimala.
On Tuesday, women from various walks of life—writers, athletes, actors, politicians and techies, government officials and homemakers —stood across the highways crisscrossing through the 14 districts in the state as the event commenced at 4 pm.
Expressing solidarity, thousands of men also lined up parallel forming a second human 'wall'.
The 'Women's wall' was conceived in the backdrop of frenzied protests witnessed in the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala after the CPI(M)-led LDF government decided to implement the Supreme Court verdict, allowing all women to pray at the Ayyappa shrine.
The event is part of an initiative to protect secular values, gender equality and to spread a message against those trying to push society into the dark ages, organisers of the programme said.
1. A 620-km women's wall in Kerala to uphold renaissance value
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Women raise their hands to take a pledge to fight gender discrimination as they form part of a hundreds kilometer long "women''s wall" in Thiruvananthapuram, in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The wall was organized in the backdrop of conservative protestors blocking the entry of women of menstruating age at the Sabarimala temple, one of the world''s largest Hindu pilgrimage sites defying a recent ruling from India''s top court to let them enter.
(Photo by: AP Photo/R.S. Iyer)
2. Women stood should-to-shoulder across the national highways
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Thousands of women take pledge while participating in the 'women’s wall' against communalism and gender discrimination, in Kochi, Kerala. (Photo by: PTI Photo)
3. 'Women’s wall' against communalism and gender discrimination
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Women hold out their hands as they stand in a line to take part in a 'women's wall protest in Kochi in southern Kerala state. (Photo by: AFP)
4. Millions of women took part in this campaign
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Tens of thousands of women formed a human chain across a southern Indian state, in support of a court order overturning a partial ban on women entering one of Hinduism's holiest temples, witnesses said. (Photo by: AFP)
5. Lakhs of women in Kerala participated in the 620 km-long 'women’s wall'
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Lakhs of women in Kerala participated in the 620 km-long 'women’s wall' –from Kasargod in the north to Thiruvananthapuram in the south – to send a message of gender equality. (Photo by: PTI)
