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Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai shuts door on women Edited by Ashish Mukherjee | Updated: November 06, 2012 08:32 IST Mumbai: Trustees of Mumbai’s Haji Ali dargah, the iconic Sufi shrine visited by thousands every year and immortalised in the movies, has shut the door on women. The Haji Ali Dargah Trust says it’s “un-Islamic under the Sharia” for women to visit graves and its decision is final.

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will confer Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh Awards for Women’s Development for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 at a function on November 5, 2012 at Rashtrapati Bhavan.  The Durgabai Deshmukh Award for women’s development was constituted in 1997 by Central Social Welfare Board, an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, to honour the memory of its founder chairperson Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh. Dr. Deshmukh was an active participant in the independence movement. She founded the Andhra Mahila Sabha and as Chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board, she imparted to the organisation her distinct flair for activism in the sphere of women’s welfare and development. She contributed greatly to developing the Board as a body which links the government and non-government sectors to ameliorate the status of women and children in the country. The award is presented to an organisation which has made outst...