Women call out sexual abuse at holy places'

Hyderabad: As numerous instances have shown in the past, religious places and events are not safe places for women. A campaign on social media which involves women talking about sexual harassment in religious places has proved this once again. 

The campaign started after Sabica Khan wrote about her experience at Hajj where she was inappropriately touched as she was taking a tawaf around the Kaaba after the Isha prayer. She felt a hand on her waist during the third tawaf, and during the sixth one she felt someone grab her from behind.

Sabica’s post went viral as women across different faiths shared their horrific experiences at holy places, processions, and pilgrimages. Many said they were afraid to speak out because they could not themselves believe this had happened. 

Gayathri N., 24, said as a young child, while she was travelling to Sabarimala with a group of thirty people, including her relatives, “I remember being groped and touched inappropriately in the train during an overnight journey. After that, for one week, I would not sleep until I was back with my mother in our house. I was eight years old and I regret not screaming or attracting attention that day." 

Commuters on buses and trains experience this behaviour from pilgrims. “It is laughable how these very same people fast for a certain period of time to cleanse themselves and yet their minds remain corrupt,” says Gayathri.

Varsha Bhargavi, organiser of ‘I Will Go Out Collective’, said, “I am not a religious person but I visited the Mahankali temple in Secunderabad to participate in the tradition, connect with the women who attend. We were all victims that day as one of the temple priests who was controlling the crowd kept touching the women inappropriately, shooing them away. He was touching the chest of women which is uncalled for. Instances like this make you question faith,” Varsha says.

“Almost all religious heads are men so there is this camaraderie between them. All cases are solved under the carpet and each faith tries to protect itself but the truth is a man’s compulsion to touch in a crowded place with the confidence that he can get away with it should be curbed,” she adds.

The SHE Teams has booked 30 men — 22 adults and eight minors — for harassing women during Ganesh Chatu-rthi processions. 

“Religion is not a veil and religious figures cannot get away with harassment. It is a good thing that harassment in places of worship is be-ing spoken about bec-ause many girls require the strength to speak out, including youngsters. We have also heard inst-ances of a child having gone missing and then returned back to the parents by men who inappropriately touched the child before doing so. Even leering and passing comments at these “holy” places is becoming common,” says a women welfare official.