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A woman can be observed praying outside the inner sanctum while a man is allowed inside. This is a perfect visual to represent how women are segregated not only by screens and walls but also distance. A yellow board is hung that says in red font, “LADIES ARE NOT ALLOWED INSIDE". This serves as a constant reminder that women should know their place, which is outside the sacred spaces. This type of controlling attitude that stems from misogynistic beliefs is bound to stir up feelings of inferiority in thousands of women who visit daily. Thus, the dargah acts as a major source of reinforcing patriarchal values in religious and cultural life. Moreover, it is known that majority of women’s prayers are dominated by the desire to have a male child, and thus are polluted with misogyny too. (Fig. 1)
The visual is a scene from the annual Basant festival held at the dargah. Men are the ones who occupy the center stage on this special occasion and they are the ones who get to recite poetry and qawwali to commemorate legacy of their saints. This is clearly depicted as the male figure is the one who is seated close to the mic. Women, like the one in the visual, remain peripheral to the performance and are connected only through audio-visual aids. This is how their value of participation in activities is undermined and trivialized. (Fig. 2)
Another scene from the Basant festival shows women dressed modestly in burqas away from the center stage where all the main celebrations are going on. The green fence acts as a tool to physically separate the women from men who have hijacked the front stage. Women’s participation is not considered important and they are restricted to marginalized back spaces like distant balconies where they sometimes cannot even see or hear clearly. These norms hurt women’s autonomy and agency and can lead to shutting women out completely. (Fig. 3)
Only men can be seen praying at the dargah’s Jamatkhana mosque. The photographer quotes a person there saying, “Ladies log ko hatalo, namaaz shuru hone wala hai” (Basu). This practice, which is not an uncommon one, relegates women to inferior spaces like behind the men and farther away from the speaker or in smaller spaces. Such gendering of spaces results in women disappearing from the center of activity and discourages them. (Fig. 4)
We can observe the portrayal of how gender plays role at an early age as to determine who is to occupy the center stage and to establish dominance. Young boys are the ones expressing themselves and being appreciated by older men. It is as if the Sufi saints had prejudice against the almost hidden women at the back. Prepubescent boys being given more importance severely affects the seriousness of women's attendance. It reflects how patriarchal values are inculcated in kids who have not even reached puberty yet. (Fig. 5)
The scene above shows women being granted free access to the sanctum sanctorum of one of India’s largest dargahs, Ajmer Sharif. The Sufi saints buried in Nizamuddin Dargah occupy the 4th and 5th place in the Chishti order/tariqa, while Ajmer Sharif is the resting place of the founder of Chishti order, Moinuddin Chishti. The fact that all the saints mentioned were Sufis and even belonged to the same order attempts to show the roots of misogynistic restrictions in discussion. Moreover, the religion they followed, Islam, calls for no such exclusion of women from sacred spaces. Thus, the causes cannot be attributed to religion but only to the toxic patriarchal mindset of Nizamuddin Dargah’s administration. (Fig. 6)
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