Isn't Feminism Going Wrong?

“I love individuals. I hate groups of people. I hate a group of people with a ‘common purpose’. Because pretty soon they have little hats. And armbands. And fight songs. And a list of people they’re going to visit at 3am. So, I dislike and despise groups of people. But I love individuals.”

These lines are well said by a renowed comedian George Carlin. In 1919, thousands of women gathered outside the White House and demanded that they would be allowed to vote. In the next presidential election, they had. And this massive demographic shift paved their way to laws in the 1920s that would promote women’s health and education.

Do you know Shayara Bano, Ishrat Jahan, Gulshan Parween, Aafreen Rehman, Atiya Sabri...?(think more...). They are the ones who fought against Tripple Talaq. They gathered together and remained united throughout their journey. A petition, titled 'Muslim Women's Quest for Equality', was filed by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA). The BMMA argued that Allah says men and women are equal. This is called Healthy Feminism.

The feminist movement is usually broken up into three “waves.” The first wave in the late 19th and early 20th centuries pushed for political equality. The second wave, in the 1960s and 70s, pushed for legal and professional equality. And the third wave, in the past couple decades, has pushed for social equality.

While in recent past, a PIL filed by the non-profit body of Indian Lawyers Association seeking the entry of all women and girls to the temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappan. Many other feminists organisation and human right activists supported the association. Infact they added the fuel to a fire. As per the relegious beliefs, the Sabarimala Temple restricts menstruating women(between the age of 10 and 50 years) from taking the pilgrimage to Sabarimala. The restriction find its source in the legend that the temple deity, Swami Ayyappa, is a 'NaishtikaBramhachari'(celibate).

Also, the Kerela Hindu Places of Public Worship(Authorization of entry) Rules, 1965, prohibits women from entering the Sabarimala Temple premises.

The restrictions were made because by allowing women to enter the temple would affect the deity's celibacy and austerity which is the unique nature of Swami Ayyappa. The temple is managed by the trust and the Sabarimala's Trusts representative claims that it has its own tradiations and customs that have to be respected, just like other places which have their own rules. Article 25(2) of the contitution which provides access to the public hindu religious institutions for all classes and sections of the society can be applied only to social reforms, not religious matters which are covered under Article 26(b) of the Constitution.

Modern feminism lacks purpose, and unfortunately that is acting as backbone for the ones who always push the movement, wrung with hysteria, further and further out into the irrelevant wilderness. It would appear that feminists are ultimately grasping at the total de-sexualization of the female body, and quite frankly, that goal is just absurd.

As far as this restriction is concerned it is not against Feminism, it has been politicised and covered in such a way that it looks like uneqality of sex. The temple trust only wanted to respect the customs that has been followed from decades. It is as simple as if you ask a man to go to washroom, he will simply go to Male's one, or will he file a petition in the apex court asking why he isn't allowed to go to female's one. Similarly, if there are certain rituals or customs so they need to be followed. And the irony is that we are following it from long back but then all of a sudden few people rise up and play a Feminist card for fulfilling their own greed.

Even Justice Malhotra, a lone female judge in a five judge constitution bench led by CJI, said that religious matters should be decided the religious communities, rather than the court. It is because notions of the rationality cannot be inserted into religious matters.