Tell the sluts to stay out
Violent protests have paralysed the southern Indian state of Kerala after two women made history by entering a prominent Hindu temple.
Schools across the state are closed and public transport too has been suspended. One person was killed in clashes on Wednesday.
Here’s a bit of advice. If your god or gods think their Rules of Exclusion are so important that you should risk death to defend them, you need a new god or gods. Rules of Exclusion are a bad thing. Seeing people as contaminants, even if it’s only One Week Per Month contamination, is an idea that leads straight to horrors. Don’t have gods of that kind, because they’re bad gods.
Right-wing groups, supported by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanded a state-wide shutdown. They wanted schools, colleges and businesses to remain closed as a sign of protest.
The state government, which supports the Supreme Court ruling, stepped up security and deployed police across the state for protection.
But fearing violence, schools and shops were closed. And buses did not run as protesters blocked highways and other roads.
In total, more than 700 people were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday. Sixty police officers were injured, more than 80 public buses were damaged and at least a dozen police vehicles were attacked.
All because of a crazed male terror of menstrual blood and of fuckable women.
Police told news agency AFP that at least 15 people were injured after protesters hurled stones at them.
According to local media reports, around 100 people were arrested by police in one district, where a mob assaulted a woman police officer.
…
Several journalists were also attacked in the protests that engulfed the state capital, Thiruvathapuram. Police said they are investigating the matter.
Women and journalists; it sounds so familiar.
The Kerala state government supports the court verdict and Mr Vijayan has repeatedly said his government will provide the security to enforce it.
But India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has argued that the court ruling is an attack on Hindu values.
The issue has become increasingly contentious in the run-up to India’s general election, scheduled for April and May. Critics have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of pursuing a religiously divisive agenda to court the BJP’s mostly-Hindu support base.
Riling up the base. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Even the protests have turned into an ideological battle between the right and the left – most of the protesters belong to right-wing groups affiliated to the BJP; and those who support the court ruling are affiliated to Kerala’s left-wing coalition government.
“Even”? Of course they have, that’s what protests are – ideological battles, usually between some form of the right and the left.
Maybe the BJP could figure out a way to get rid of menstruation entirely.
If the god is that insistant about these things, he should take the time and effort to show up in court. Personally.
Yeah. Like, in Nebraska, where Ernie Chambers sued God, urging that he be restrained from continued threats against the good people of Nebraska (tornados, probably?). The court threw out the case because there was no way to serve papers on the defendant. Chambers stated that, since God is everywhere, he doesn’t need to be served, he knows he is being sued. Court didn’t buy it, more’s the pity. (Chambers is one of the few open non-believers in government in the US, and he’s representing a very religious district, so that’s a testament to how much he has done to support his district, and that people can disagree on religious matters and still work together, if the people are willing to behave with good sense).
YNnB, the problem is in finding a courthouse large enough to fit all of the 33,000,000 (give-or-take) Hindu deities, or at the very.least finding out which of them is so bothered about menstruating women.
How much room does a god take up? Do immaterial divinities nned personal space? would they need seats in the courtroom, or would they be allowed to float, levitate or otherwise waft around?
I think in this instance, though, we’d only need to subpoena Ayyappan, rather than the entire Hindu pantheon. He’s the one who’s allegedly getting bent out of shape because his special snowflake celibate self is all upset at the presense of lady parts in his temple, though you’d think a god might be able to keep his gentleman parts under control (though if he’s anything like Zeus, I can see there might be problems on that count). The other deities would get their own hearings on a case by case basis. As to their religious feelings towards menstruating women, I’m sure that some sort of poll or survey would be suitable. Maybe a telephone hotline. If no god voices their objections, than the lifting of the ban should stand and be extended to all such institutional discrimination against women’s worship and equality across India.
Maybe Ayyappan should stop it with the victim-blaming, leave the women alone, and take it up with the deity that humans, or the one that cursed women with menstuation (there’s bound to be one because what religion is complete unless the women are cursed?).