Historic Indian mosque agrees to lift ban on women

NEW DELHI // An historic mosque in India agreed on Monday to lift a ban on women entering its inner sanctum after a bitter legal battle.

Since 2011, the Haji Ali Dargah trust has barred women from the landmark mosque off the coast of Mumbai, insisting the presence of women near the tomb of a revered saint is a “grievous sin” in Islam.

The trustees had appealed to the supreme court against a lower court’s order in August to overturn the ban, a ruling made on the grounds that the prohibition violated constitutional rights of equality.

But the trust told the supreme court on Monday it would now admit women, but needed several weeks to set up special entry areas to the tomb in the 15th-century building.

“The trust has decided to give women access to the sanctorum housing the saint’s tomb,” its lawyer Gopal Subramanium told the court.

The reasons for the trust’s change of heart were unclear but the supreme court when taking up the appeal had expressed hopes of a “progressive” approach from it, according to the Press Trust of India.

A Muslim women’s rights group hailed the decision as a victory which would likely put pressure on other places of worship that have gender restrictions.

“It’s a victory for women’s rights,” said Noorjehan Niaz, co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan which campaigns for the rights of Muslim women in India.

“It is restoring the Islamic values of what we have always believed as Muslims, that Islam is a religion of equality, democracy and women’s rights,” she said.

Ms Niaz was one of the petitioners who filed the case against the Haji Ali Dargah trust on constitutional grounds.

Women in India have been intensifying their campaigns to be allowed to enter a string of Hindu temples and other religious sites.

Hundreds of women staged a protest march to a temple in Maharashtra state in January, leading the high court in Mumbai to strike down a ban against women entering a shrine there.

Haji Ali Dargah is one of Mumbai’s most recognisable landmarks and receives tens of thousands visitors every week.

* Agence France-Presse