Kerala activist Rehana Fathima surrendered before the police on Saturday evening in a case over her controversial video. A day earlier, the Supreme Court rejected her plea against the Kerala High Court order that denied her anticipatory bail in the case, which comes under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and Information Technology Act.
Rehana, who has a 14-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl, had uploaded a video clip titled 'Body Art and Politics' on YouTube, showing her two children painting on the upper part of her semi-naked body.
She wrote on her Facebook page on Saturday, "In the context of not getting anticipatory bail, will surrender before the investigating officer this evening. Will cooperate entirely with further investigations and legal proceedings. Love to everyone who supported the fight for social change, gender equality and against extreme sexualisation of a woman's body. Let time prove that we were right."
After a case was filed against her, she had moved the Kerala High Court but it, last month, turned down her anticipatory bail plea. Fathima also got no relief from the apex court, where a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra noted that it was an act that spread obscenity. "What impression will growing-up children get?" the court asked.
Rehana came into the limelight in October 2018 when she was forced to abandon her plan to pray at the Sabarimala temple shrine, following a huge backlash against her and the accompanying police, by Hindu right-wing activists who stayed put in the temple, determined to thwart any attempt for her to reach it.
After it was found that she was a BSNL employee hailing from Kochi, BJP and RSS activists had staged a protest in front of her house.
For the past 18 months, she was under suspension. After a BSNL probe found that her Facebook messages had fanned communal tension and she had violated service rules, her services were terminated on disciplinary grounds.
The Sabarimala temple doesn't allow entry to girls and women, aged 10-50 years and the issue is pending before the apex court's Constitutional bench. Rehana tried to visit the temple in the brief period that an SC order had allowed entry to women of all ages, which led to state-wide protests led by the right wing.
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