Rights activist Trupti Desai enters Mumbai’s Haji Ali Dargah

Rights activist Trupti Desai today entered Mumbai’s Haji Ali Dargah to offer prayers amid tight security, saying her struggle was for gender equality.

“At the Dargah, I prayed that women be allowed to enter the inner sanctum, as was the case till 2011,” Bhumata Ranragini Brigade chief Desai said, after coming out of the Dargah.

“Police cooperated with us this time. This is a fight for gender equality. We will try to visit the inner sanctum next time,” she said. Desai and other women activists were earlier denied entry to the Dargah last month.

After campaign for entry of women in Shani Shingnapur and Trimbakeshwar temples in Maharashtra, Desai had taken her movement for gender equality to the famous Dargah in Mumbai. She was stopped short of going into the shrine on April 28 by protestors.