Activist who tried to enter Sabarimala Temple suspended from BSNL

Rehana worked as a telecom technician in BSNL.

Activist Rehana Fathima was on Tuesday suspended from BSNL after she was arrested by Pathanamthitta Police on charges of hurting religious sentiments. She worked as a telecom technician in BSNL. 

Fathima had earlier in October tried to enter the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala after the Supreme Court passed a judgement allowing women to enter the Ayyappa temple. 

Fatima, a model and activist who was part of "Kiss of Love" movement in Kochi in 2014 against alleged moral policing, was among the two women who had reached the hilltop but had to return before reaching the sanctum sanctorum following massive protests by Ayyappa devotees.

Fatima and Hyderabad-based journalist Kavitha were taken to the hills with heavy police protection. The activist's house was allegedly vandalised by unidentified persons while she was away trying to climb the holy hills. 

A mother of two and employee of the BSNL, Fathima had kicked up a row last year by posing for topless photos with watermelons in protest against a Kozhikode-based college professor's statement comparing women's breasts to watermelons.

On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra, lifted the centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine but a section of devotees is protesting the decision.