ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on the role of the Desibeherani and her female relatives, and considers in what ways they relate to the unpopular conflicts. The family dispute turned into a public affair and, to make matters worse, was then stirred up by the media. Whereas several women in the old town who had witnessed or heard about the incident considered the manifestation of the divine, the public privileged the male priestly competence and thus disqualified the respective body practice and method of authentication. Nevertheless, in public discourse it was suspected that the Desibeherani followed 'selfish interests' rather than devoting herself to communal needs. Any exposure to the public, whether among neighbours or at the communal level, may provide women with social immunity. At the same time, being in public is also risky, in that women’s ritual agency is contested once it is assessed in terms of a power play.
