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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <a
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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/14/5-5-million-women-build-their-wall/">counterpunch.org</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">5.5 Million Women Build Their Wall</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/drespu/"
rel="nofollow">Vijay Prashad</a> - January 14, 2019</span></div>
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<p>On Jan. 1, 5.5 million women in the Indian state of
Kerala (population 35 million) built a 386-mile wall
with their bodies. They stood from one end to the other
of this long state in southwestern India. The women
gathered at 4 p.m. and took a vow to defend the
renaissance traditions of their state and to work
towards women’s empowerment. It is not an exaggeration
to say that this was one of the largest mobilizations of
women in the world for women’s rights. It is certainly
larger than the historical Women’s March in Washington,
D.C. in 2017.</p>
<p>Kerala’s government is run by the Communists. It is not
easy for a left-wing government to operate in a state
within the Indian union. The Central Government in New
Delhi has little desire to assist Kerala, which suffered
a cataclysmic flood last year. No assistance with the
budgetary burdens of relief and reconstruction, and no
help with financing for infrastructure and welfare
services. The Communist government has a wide-ranging
agenda that runs from its Green Kerala Mission — a
project for stewardship of the state’s beautiful
environment — to its fight for women’s emancipation. The
Left Democratic Front government believes that dignity
is a crucial a goal as economic rights, and that it is
centrally important to fight against everyday
humiliation to build a truly just society.</p>
<p>Over the course of the left’s government in Kerala, it
has pushed ahead the agenda against everyday
humiliation. For instance, in 2017, the government
provided free sanitary pads for young women in school.
The logic was that during their periods, young women who
could not afford sanitary pads avoided school.
Prejudices against menstruation had become a barrier to
equal education. The government called this project “She
Pad,” which benefited students and teachers. Pinarayi
Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala, said of the
effort, “Menstrual hygiene is every girl’s right. The
government is hoping that initiatives like these will
help our girls to lead a life of confidence.”</p>
<p>A hundred miles north of Kerala’s capital —
Thiruvanthapuram — sits a temple for Ayyappan, a
celibate god. Women between the ages of 10 and 50 had
not been permitted into the temple due to a belief that
the celibate god would not be able to tolerate women who
menstruate. The Indian Supreme Court took notice of this
and, in September 2018, declared that the temple must
allow all women to enter. The Left Democratic Front
government agreed with the courts. But the temple
authorities, and the far-right groups in the state,
disagreed. When women tried to enter the temple, the
priests blocked them, assisted by the far right. The
situation was at a deadlock.</p>
<p>Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called upon progressive
organizations across the state to start mobilizing the
citizens toward the building of a Women’s Wall (Vanitha
Mathil) on Jan. 1. The energy in the state was electric.
Women gathered at hundreds of mass meetings across the
state. They recognized immediately that this was not a
fight only to enter a temple, but this was a fight
principally for women’s emancipation, for the right of
women, as Vijayan had said, “to lead a life of
confidence.”</p>
<p>The public meetings in November and December galvanized
the opposition to the far right, arguing that women have
every right to enter public spaces, including religious
buildings. January began in anticipation. Women had been
organized by districts and knew where to go. Women of
all ages and backgrounds, from schoolteachers to members
of the fishing community, began to line up around 3 p.m.
After taking an oath, they marched through their towns
and cities. They exuded joy and confidence, a freedom
that should warm the hearts of sensitive people.</p>
<p>Strikingly, the media outside India paid little
attention to this global, historical event. Press
coverage in the United States was nearly absent.
Internationalism in our time is such a façade, with so
little care to amplify the bravery of people around the
world. When the Women’s March took place in Washington,
D.C., newspapers in Kerala reported it in detail. The
favor was not returned. Silence was the answer.</p>
<p>Two days after the Women’s Wall, the right-wing in
Kerala went on a rampage. Their members attacked the
leaders on the left and threw bombs at government
buildings. Over 700 people — mostly men on the far right
— were arrested that day.</p>
<p>Walking down a main shopping street in
Thiruvanthapuram, I see visible signs of the far-right’s
attack. On one side of the street are posters and signs
of left organizations torn and broken during the day of
rampage by the far right. On the other side of the
street, far-right supporters sit on a hunger strike.</p>
<p>Even liberals have taken the side of the far right. One
liberal politician said that while he favored women’s
rights, he also favored the temple’s rights. But the
temple has no rights, nor does tradition. As Gandhi
wrote almost a hundred years ago, “If I can’t swim in
tradition, I’ll sink in it.” Neither the temple nor
tradition trumps the rights of women to live with
confidence. If a tradition is discriminatory, it
deserves to be set aside.</p>
<p>There are no half measures in this debate in Kerala.
The mood is that one must not walk away from one’s
principles.</p>
<p>5.5 million women in Kerala — one in three women in the
state — took to the streets to champion the emancipation
of women. What brought them to join the Women’s Wall was
that the Left Democratic Front government took a clear
position, a principled position: that menstruation
should not be used as a penalty against women’s full
participation in society. Clarity defines the struggle.
It is a lesson worth learning around the world.</p>
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<p> <em><strong>Vijay Prashad’s</strong> most recent book
is No Free Left: The Futures of Indian Communism (New
Delhi: LeftWord Books, 2015).</em> </p>
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