Not so long ago, Trupti Desai was being hailed as a revolutionary, fighting against all odds to bring about gender equality in religion. The dramatic climax to the Shani Shingnapur episode, forcing her way into the sanctum sanctorum of the temple in Maharashtra, went a long way in enhancing her image as a crusader for feminism.

But while many in India accepted her as the Kanhaiya Kumar of Maharashtra, for Desai, making everyone equal in the eyes of Lord Shani was not enough.

If gender equality is a concept that goes beyond religion, Desai felt that any discriminatory practice against women — be it in a mandir, a masjid or even a dargah — needs to be fought. And fight she did. In the process, though, Desai has ended up coming across as a fighter of the “sickular” persuasion.

Fresh off her victory at Shani Shingnapur, Desai announced she would take the fight to Mumbai and win her Muslim sisters the right to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the Haji Ali Dargah. The world watched with bated breath.

But the gala performance on April 28 left the audience high and dry. Desai, other protesters claimed, arrived a good hour-and-a-half late. Soon, the uncompromising feminist parted ways with the newly-instituted forum that was ostensibly her partner.

While Haji Ali for All said she was asked to leave, Desai told a news website she was never a part of it, just a supporter. “ I have just withdrawn my support to the forum Haji Ali for All as it was opposed to my aggressive approach towards the issue. All those NGOs which are part of that forum work at slow pace,” Desai was quoting as saying, even as she trained her guns on Sabarimala’s Ayappa temple.

So what made her abandon her Haji Ali project? Was it the threats from all sides? After all, no major party in Maharashtra spared her. Such was the situation that even Shiv Sena, which is on the saffron end of the religious spectrum and has no truck with the greener shades (at least not in a positive way), opposed her, with a local leader named Haji Arafat Shaikh threatening to welcome her with a “prasad of chappals” if she attempts to enter the mazaar.

Ironically, that Desai was fighting against a dominant male voice dictating religious terms was a point that Shaikh conveniently missed. He wasn’t alone, though. Even the Congress party, which never fails to appropriate the word secular or even its synonym, found Haji Ali not allowing women in the sanctum sanctorum perfectly justifiable.

Nizamuddin Rayeen, chief of Mumbai Congress’ minority, disregarded Desai as someone who is interfering with other people’s religion, saying, “Haji Ali is a religious place and at any religious place, the committee that manages it, has the right to run things according to them.” It did not occur to Rayeen that the managing committee of Haji Ali being composed solely of males was in itself gender-biased.

Similar sentiments were espoused by Samajwadi Party, whose women workers felt women have other stuff to do than fight for gender equality, and AIMIM who, taking the idiom pen is mightier than the sword a little too literally, promised to smear black ink on Desai’s face if she dared entering Haji Ali.

Although officials at Haji Ali refused to comment on the issue, Syed Hammad Nizami of Nizamuddin Dargah, Delhi, was quick to observe, “If you go anywhere, you have to follow the rules of that place. If she wanted to go there, she could have gone as a devotee and followed the procedure.”

While male Muslims irrespective of their political or religious affiliation felt it was a transgression on Islam, Rana Safvi, author, historian and a Muslim woman, turned the whole thing around, saying the first Hadith of the Prophet, which places a ban on women visiting a graveyard and, by extension, a shrine or dargah, is cancelled by the second one. “Had I been in Mumbai, I’d have gone there,” said Safvi. “The essence of Sufism is in its inclusivity and women were allowed in Haji Ali till 2011. In fact, it’s allowed in most Muslim countries like Iraq, Iran and Syria.”

Could it be the relative ease with which Hindu temples can be reformed or the Muslim community’s rigid opposition to an outsider voice their opinion on them? Whatever be the case, Desai’s aborted mission at Haji Ali says a lot about the mentality of protesters in India.

Perhaps it’s the fear of being called an Islamophobe that makes non-Muslims back off after a point. But there is a far lesser chance of being labelled once if you are a Muslim, which is why the voices that are emerging from within Sufism – including Ajmer – will go a long way in shattering the deafening silence engulfing gender equality in Islam.

Update: According to latest reports, Trupti Desai visited Haji Ali on May 12, but did not enter the inner sanctum. She has asked the dargah trustees to allow women to go all the way to the sanctum sanctorum within 15 days, failing which she and her supporters will stage a protest.