DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, March 20, 2001: Indian women in South Africa have found a new niche to promote and protect their religion. Twenty-four diligent participants, all of them female, have graduated from the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha Academy. Started in 1954, the institution teaches interested persons a weekly class for three years. Under the tutelage of trained priests, students become well versed in religious rites and ceremonies. After completing both oral and theoretical examinations, four women were recently inducted as female priests, while the remaining twenty are able to perform basic rituals for weddings, funerals and the birth of children.
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