Activist Rehana Fathima climbs down from Sabarimala, but this was another bid to break the glass ceiling

But Rehana Fathima is no stranger to controversies or standing up to them. She broke into the headlines in March this year when, in protest against comments from a professor in Kozhikode who said women should cover their watermelon-like-breasts, she posted pictures of herself with watermelons covering her breasts. Hours after sharing the pictures, they were taken down by Facebook after a flurry of trolls and threats.

Hyderabad based journalist Kavitha Jakkal and activist Rehna Fathima step off Sabarimala with police protection. (Express Photo by Vignesh Krishnamoorthy)

In 2014, she participated in the Kiss of Love campaign in Kerala against moral policing. Her partner, filmmaker Manoj K Sreedhar, had shared a clip of the kiss on Facebook. She was the only woman in the Ayyanthol PuliKali team, a traditional Onam tiger dance usually done by all-male troupes. She had then told Manorama she had always wanted to “perform in a space dominated by men”.

Rehana, a telecom technician with BSNL, has also acted in an art film named Eka which focussed on intersexuality. The posters of the film carried the tagline: ‘I am intersex. I have a penis and vagina by birth. I want to live’. The producers of the film claimed it was the first film of its kind to be produced in India.

The 31-year-old government employee and mother-of-two, Rehana was born in an orthodox Muslim family. She says she became disillusioned with religion after her father’s death. A report in the The Times of India quoted Rehana as saying she wants to question the restrictions regarding a woman baring her body and make a point on women’s assertion of her own self. Her Facebook bio seems to sum her up well: ‘Break the rules’.

Rehana has come back without entering the temple, but her trek was yet another bid to break the glass ceiling.