MANGALURU: The session on Women and Religion — from triple talaq to Sabarimala — during Mangaluru Lit Fest emphasised that judicial system can’t interrupt an age-old tradition. The panel consisting of Yogini Shambavi Chopra, Preethi Nagaraj and Padma Rani was in conservation with actor and BJP leader Malavika Avinash on Sunday.
The entire session, dominated mostly by Malavika Avinash, discussed that the Sabarimala tradition of not allowing women should be respected. Setting the stage, Avinash said during the majority-minority struggle, the minority tradition has come under the threat of majority opinion of equality. She had visited Sabarimala during the protest and found that women were not in favour of the Supreme Court verdict, she said.
Preethi Nagaraj said soul has no gender and anybody should not intervene between the longing soul and God. Shambavi Chopra said dharma is respecting the tradition and no judicial system can interrupt the local tradition. On triple talaq, the session has seen a little discussion except allowing a few questions in the end and panellists stressing that in triple talaq case, the petitioners were aggrieved to approach the court and were affected but not in case of Sabarimala where the petitioners were not aggrieved nor believers in first place, Malavika Avinash said.
When a participant asked if the panellists knew that the petitioners were truly non-believers, Malavika brushed aside the question stating that it was a naïve question.With heavily leaning on the right wing ideology, the session ended reiterating that Sabarimala tradition should be respected but there were testing times when some participants asked tough questions.