Prayar Gopalakrishnan, president of the Travancore Devaswom Board, said that he would think about letting women into the temple if a machine that could "check the purity of women" was invented. His statement was met with a response from the Facebook page Feminism in India, which launched the #HappyToBleed campaign.
"Women are denied entry to the temple because of the belief that menstruation makes them impure," a post on the page read. "We have started a campaign, #HappyToBleed, as a form of resistance against patriarchal beliefs about menstruation, and chauvinist notions that consider women the property of men, or society."
The campaign encourages women to photograph themselves with posters and sanitary napkins displaying the message "Happy to Bleed" in order to spread awareness and challenge patriarchal ideals.
"More than 100 women have posted their photographs to Facebook holding banners and placards, with catchy slogans, and many more have shared these photos on their timelines," Nikita Azad, who originally proposed the campaign told the BBC.
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