After a series of legal battles, around 200-250 women activists entered the Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Women from across the country entered the inner sanctum of the dargah in the afternoon.
Till June 2012, women were allowed entry up to the sanctum sanctorum comprising the mazaar (grave) of the revered Muslim saint, Sayyed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, but suddenly the entry to women was barred.
In 2014, the BMMA and others challenged the move of the Haji Ali Dargah Trust in the courts.
On 26 August Justice VM Kanade and Justice Revathi Mohite-Dhere ruled in favour of the petitioners and directed the trust to allow equal access to women, which the trust challenged in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on 24 October delivered its verdict upholding equal access to men and women, and the trust expressed readiness to allow women inside till the sanctum sanctorum.
The trust authorities sought four weeks time to make certain infrastructural changes and alterations to accommodate the women devotees, who would now throng the shrine.
“It was a fight for equality, ending gender bias and our constitutional rights. We are happy that it has resulted in women and men getting equal unrestricted access right till the sanctum sanctorum,” Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) co-founder Niaz said.
A trustee of the dargah, Suhail Khandwani, said that there would be separate entries to the shrine for men and women and henceforth nobody would be allowed to touch the peer’s tomb.
Under the new arrangements, all devotees would wait and pray nearly two metres away from the tomb with rights of equal access to all.
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