INDIA WOMENS DAY
A woman shackled with chains and locks covers herself in mud as part of a purifying ritual to unburden herself outside of the Mira Datar Shrine in the town of Unava, Gujarat Thursday March 4, 2004. Over six centuries the Suffi Muslim Mira Datar shrine has claimed its fame as a sanctuary for healing mental ilness, particularly for women, where they are free to express themselves in a society that otherwise regulates women's behaviour very strickly. In this atmosphere of acceptance these women often reveal through their healing trances a lifetime of duress linked to any range of issues such domestic violence, pressures to provide dowry or a male child among them.
