No regrets, says Indian woman ostracised for defying Hindu temple restrictions
Activist insists everyone who believes in God has a right to enter the temple
Kochi — Since defying a centuries-old ban on women entering a Hindu temple in southern India, Kanakadurga has been beaten, thrown out of the family home and separated from her two children. Yet she says she has no regrets — and would do it all again. The 39-year-old civil servant made history this month when she and a female lecturer became the first women in centuries to enter the Sabarimala temple after the Supreme Court ruled that a ban on women of childbearing age was unconstitutional. The move sparked violent protests by hardline Hindus in Kerala state and death threats that forced the two women into hiding. When Durga tried to return home, her mother-in-law beat her so severely she ended up in hospital. “She beat me on my head, pushed me out and shut the doors,” Durga said on Wednesday. “I'm desperately sad that I can’t return to my own home and live with my children. I miss them so badly,” she said of her 12-year-old twin boys. Durga, who is staying in a government-run shelte...
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