Women activists welcome court verdict on Haji Ali Dargah

“We welcome the decision of the High Court. It is a tight slap on the faces of those who put a ban on women’s entry into the Dargah. It’s a big victory of women power,” said Desai celebrating the verdict with her group outside her office here. “This is a landmark decision. The right that women are entitled to get, the right that has been given to women in the Constitution, that were somewhere taken away from us. The ban was on entry of women in the ‘mazar’ (area) of the Haji Ali dargah. “We have been fighting against the secondary status given to women...patriarch mentality, this ‘dadagiri’ (high-handedness) attitude of the (shrine) Trust that ‘we will not allow women’...This (the verdict) is a victory of the movement by Bhumata Ranragini brigade,” she added. The women group led by Desai will visit the shrine in the heart of Mumbai on August 28. 

“Though the high court has stayed its order for six weeks following a plea by Haji Ali dargah Trust, which wants to challenge it in the Supreme Court, we will go on August 28 till the point where women are allowed and will seek blessings,” she told reporters here. Bibi Khatoon, another social activist and member of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) — a Muslim women’s rights group, which had fought the ban, too rejoiced the verdict and said, “Firstly, I would like to thank the High Court judge, Kanade. All these women who have been fighting for this right for sometime now had taken a back seat fearing what society will say...but then let the society say what they want to...but what we want do, we will do.” 

“The Sufi saints too were given birth by women, then why we are being barred (from entering into the inner area of the dargah). Had the court not decided in our favour, we would have approached the Supreme Court. But we are very happy today that the court came to our rescue. I am thankful to our advocates, Raju Moray sir, and the entire media,” she said. The demand for equal access to the Haji Ali Dargah was first raised by BMMA, which had filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court in August 2014 against the ‘blatant discrimination on the ground of gender alone’. The Dargah Trust had defended its stand, saying that it is referred in Quran that allowing women close proximity to the dargah of a male saint is a grievous sin. Men have unhindered access to the actual burial place of the saint, and are also allowed to touch the tomb.