Indian woman makes history with her climb up sacred mountain

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Logical Indian)

published 25 January 2019

For the first time, a woman has climbed the summit of Agasthyakoodam, a sacred mountain in India.

Before, only men could scale the peak; there is an statue of a Hindu sage on the mountain, and local tribespeople believe women should not go near it because he was celibate, BBC News reports. In November, a court ruled that women could climb the mountain, and the first to sign up was 38-year-old Dhanya Sanal. She reached the top on Jan. 14

It's not an easy task — the mountain terrain is rocky and steep, and it takes about three days to get to the top. Sanal was part of a group of about 100 climbers, the only woman on her trek. She is a trailblazer; already, 100 other women have registered to scale the mountain in the next few weeks. "We have moved one step ahead in ending gender discrimination in Kerala," activist Divya Divakaran told BBC News. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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