Women enters Haji Ali dargah

It was a moment of joy when a group over 80 women on Tuesday entered the Haji Ali dargah located at the Worli shoreline along the Arabian Sea.The women, who came by a bus, walked to the shrine and offered ‘chadar’ at the tomb of Sayyed Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, a 15th Century Sufi saint.

“A few days ago, the trustees were in favour of preventing women from entering the sanctum sanctorum… today, we entered the Haji Ali dargah; we are very happy, we offered a chadar… later the trustees offered us tea and bonded with us,” said a woman coming out of the shrine.

sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">On October 24, the Haji Ali Dargah Trust told the Supreme Court it would take a month to implement the Bombay High Court order that lifted the ban on women’s entry into the dargah’s inner sanctum.

“Women would be able to pay respects to the saint now,” Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan co-founder Noorjehan S Niaz said. Niaz, along with Zakia Soman, had filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court questioning the 2011-12 ban on women entering the sanctum sanctorum imposed by the Trust. According to the dargah’s new rules, nobody will be allowed to touch the tomb, but equal access will be given to men and women, and there would be separate queues.