A quote from AFP, 9 January 2008

A 1,000-year-old ban on women in the Greek monastic community of Mt. Athos crumbled, albeit briefly, yesterday. […] Around 500 women and men from villages in the Halkidiki peninsula in northern Greece took a few steps into the territory of the self-governing community of some 20 monasteries before a police cordon stopped them, police and the organiser said.

“It was a symbolic act, we have broken the ‘avaton’,” said protest organiser Kyriaki Malama, referring to the 1045 AD decree that forbids women access on grounds of impurity. “We demand that the Greek government and the European Union intervene to stop the monasteries from acting as if they are above the law.” […]

According to Greek law, women trespassing on Mt. Athos can, if found guilty, faces sentences of in between 12 months and two years in prison. Several feminist groups in Greece and other countries have tried to have the medieval law nullified. The European Parliament asked Greece to make gender rights equal in 2002 and 2003, both times with no results.