Mumbai: Activist Trupti Desai on Thursday took her movement for gender equality to the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai but could not enter the shrine because of protesters gathered there.
The Bhumata Brigade chief reached the causeway leading to the dargah but did not try to enter, thus avoiding a showdown with the protesters. The women activists were later detained by the police.
"We are not acting in haste or trying to hurt religious setiments. We are only trying to make sure that women are given equal rights to pray," said Desai who had led successful campaigns for the entry of women in some Hindu temples.
She said she had also written to Bollywood celebrities Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan seeking their support for the gender equality movement.Some supporters of the campaign also turned up pledging support for the agitation.
Expecting a face-off between the campaigners and the protesters, including those from AIMIM and the Samajwadi Party, police had barricaded the entire area. Earlier, a local AIMIM leader had threatened to smear her face with black ink if she entered the inner sanctum.
Desai had recently successfully led campaigns to break the ban on women at the sanctum sanctorum of Shani Shingnapur and Trimbakeshwar temples in Maharashtra.
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