For centuries, women of menstruating age have been banned from the Sabarimala temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The country’s Supreme Court ordered the temple to lift the ban last year, but no woman below 50 had been able to get in, until today.
“The historic moment, caught on video, shows two women with their heads covered,” reports NPR’s Sushmita Pathak. “Holy chants blare on speakers as the women hurry into the Sabarimala temple.”
The two women — identified by local media as Bindu from Perinthalmanna and Kanaka Durga from Kannur — were able to enter the temple on Wednesday after a midnight trek that lasted several hours. “We reached Pampa, the main entry point to the temple at 1:30 a.m., and sought police protection to enter the temple,” Bindu said, according to Reuters. The local state government helped the women enter the temple, and defended their decision to do so in a news conference as “a matter of civil rights.”
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