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Wait! There's A Reason Smriti Irani Made The 'Blood-Soaked Sanitary Napkin' Comment

There were rumours that a female activist tried to carry a used sanitary napkin into the temple

While most politicians have stayed away from courting controversy and have remained mum on the Sabarimala issue, Union minister Smriti Irani stirred up a storm on Tuesday after she said, “I have right to pray, but not right to desecrate. I am nobody to speak on SC verdict as I’m serving cabinet minister. Would you take sanitary napkins soaked in menstrual blood into a friend’s home? So, why would you take them into the house of God.”

What followed was a barrage of hate tweets directed at Irani because, let’s face it, BJP leaders’ remarks in the past have rarely earned them the merit of the benefit of the doubt.

However, we must give Irani’s statement some context. She was referring to rumours of an activist, who wanted to carry a blood-soaked sanitary napkin into Sabarimala and a few people on Twitter even pointed that out.

Activist Rehana Fathima, one of the first few women who almost reached the top at Sabarimala temple, allegedly wanted to carry a used sanitary napkin. Twitter users claim that her real intentions were to throw the used sanitary napkin at the deity or somewhere inside the temple.

Fathima told The Quint, “People were using my Muslim name and tactics like spreading the idea that I was there to create trouble, that I carried sanitary napkins – all to misguide people. When people are already questioning if I am a devotee or not, planting this idea that I was a lady who had gone there to only create trouble, would aggravate them.”

Last week, protestors in Kerala stopped buses going to Sabarimala to check whether women were on it. Several women journalists were also stopped and attacked from going towards the temple.

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