KANNUR: She says she is a communist believer, and a devotee of Ayyappa. But her decision to go to Sabarimala in the backdrop of the Supreme Court order has kick-started a controversy and she says she is facing threat from different corners.“For the last many years, I have been observing the vratha, though I knew I would not be permitted there, but this time I decided to visit the temple and started the vratha in all its discipline by wearing the black cloths and observing celibacy,” said Reshma, a resident of Cherukunnu here.But some so-called Ayyappa devotees have started abusing her and on Sunday night they raised slogans in front of her house, she said.“The irony is that most of them were heavily drunk and still they claimed to be Ayyappa devotees, which shows the shallowness of the campaign,” said Reshma, who added that she would visit Sabarimala at any cost and the present plan is to have the pilgrimage after the vratha for 41 days.She says there are many young women who are planning this pilgrimage with great devotion but they are afraid of the attack on them and hence keeping silent.“I am a follower of the communist ideology because of its humanism and it has never come in my way in my religious faith,” asserted Reshma.Menstruation is just like a biological process and it need not be seen as an obstacle in observing the vratha, she said.“It is just an act of excretion and it never makes a woman impure. Moreover, I think the permission to visit Sabarimala is a matter of gender justice, and hence more devotee women would come forward to visit the shrine in the coming days,” she said, adding that she has filed a police complaint following the threat.

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