The ‘unclean’ women

The idea that the doors of the house of God are open only for some and barred for others should be deeply offensive to any true believer of God. Unfortunately, these doors are often found to be closed for some, particularly ‘unclean’ women, i.e. menstruating women.

In Hinduism, the fear of pollution from such women is so deeply rooted that they are not allowed to enter temples and inner sanctums or visit pilgrimages, depending on the state of their wombs. Even today, little girls of 12-13 years are not allowed to partake in rituals during occasions like Durga Puja if they are menstruating. The religious and social norms do not consider the fact that for the kid the Puja is a festival, a once-in-a-year occasion. For the little soul it is not possible to understand the significance and dos and don’ts associated with her periods. Also, considering that the worship is of a Goddess, there is definitely something wrong about the idea that a Goddess, who is a symbol of femininity, would turn her face away from a worshipper who was undergoing a normal female biological process.

It is the same peculiar logic that women who are menstruating are ‘unclean’ is behind the prohibition that bars women between 10 to 50 years from going on the Sabarimala pilgrimage. Any woman, who is even capable of having children, or making love, or menstruating, is turned away. It is hard to fathom why any woman would want to worship a deity who saw her as somehow inferior by virtue of her sex. It’s much harder to imagine the depth of the fear that lies behind such thinking.  

Therefore, are the religious and social norms trying to suggest that only women who are sexless are clean in the eyes of God? People who created these norms perhaps forgot the fact that women’s biological process called menstruation is a creation of God, and this process plays a key role in the continuation of the world. Therefore, tagging a woman to be ‘unclean’ based on this is certainly unjustified.

One may argue that when these norms were created women were disallowed from entering religious places as in those days the female folk did not have proper protection gear like sanitary pads. But have the rules been changed now, when most women have this protection gear or are at least well aware of the requisite protection? No one has dared to do that, because no matter how much we speak about gender equality, women are still considered to be less important in certain aspects, such as religion. Sigh!