India's Women Warriors

In India, women fight to enter a sacred temple as part of a larger battle against discrimination within Hinduism.

Millions of pilgrims from across India flock to one of the country's most sacred Hindushrines every year.

But Sabarimala Temple has long been off-limits to almost half the world's population.

Women aged between 10 and 50 are considered impure by the hardline Hindu men who come to the temple to worship.

"Women cannot follow the rituals," says Aswani Dev, an ardent devotee. "A woman is an object that jeopardises the mind of a man."

Will women win fight to worship in Hindu temple?

Protests paralyse the southern Indian state where two women defied an ancient ban on entering shrine

The state of Kerala has been at a standstill following violent protests against the lifting of a ban preventing women of reproductive age from entering one of Hinduism's holiest temples - Sabarimala.

The Supreme Court made the ruling in September but conservative groups backed by India's ruling party - the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - objected and blocked attempts by women to gain entrance.

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