Traditional beliefs are still being held by people around the world, despite the outcry over gender equality today. This also due to the clash between these traditional practices that seem to contradict the thinking of the new age.
There are some locations in the world that are constantly defending their position. Here are three locations in the world where women are barred from attending or approaching them.
1. Okinoshima Island
Okinoshima Island is one of Japan’s most considered sacred places, located near Kyushu. With an area of 240 acres, the island has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017, due to its historical impact.
What makes it interesting, the island not only prohibits women from attending but allows only 200 men to enter the island on a single day: May 27th of every year.
The ritual, held every May 27th, in commemoration of a war not far from the island, required a man who prevented to bath on the beach, without even wearing a yarn.
This bath is a mandatory rule, to purify all male visitors before they are allowed to enter the next areas.
2. Mount Omine
The sacred Mount Omine is one of the main places of worship of Shugendo, an ancient religion held by the Japanese minority.
Over 1,300 years only a group of men were allowed to climb this mountain to reach a temple built at its peak, at an altitude of over 5,000 feet.
Women are restricted to go because to respect the monk’s demands there.
3. Mount Athos, Greece
Known as ‘Agion Oros’ in Greece or ‘Holy Mountain’ the mountain region has been open for more than 1,000 years to trains monks coming from eastern European countries, such as Romania, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Moldova.
Not only women prohibited from entering also a female animal even approaching the beaches. They are only allowed to travel 500 meters before being considered prohibited.
This tradition is maintained in honor of the presence of the Virgin Mary in the area that transformed the area from being filled with followers of the paganism of Christian Orthodox.
Sources: Okinoshima Island , Web.Williams, BBC
