Menstrual Taboos Ft. Sexist Social Hardships #5
Regions and Menstrual Taboos
Africa
Across the continent of Africa, a wide variety of menstruation-related customs have been recorded.
Zambia
A cloth torn from the traditional wrap (chitenge) is worn, part tied around the waist and part looped under the crotch, to catch menstrual fluid. Menarche (the first menstrual cycle at puberty) is traditionally treated as a sign that the girl is probably ready for sex and marriage, as well as for adult duties in the household. Initiation rites on menarche include instruction on sex and marital relations as well as on menstrual management. This is conducted by older women. It is taboo to talk about menstruation with men, or to learn from one's own mother.
South Asia
In some portions of South Asia, there is a menstrual taboo, with it frequently being considered impure. Restrictions on movement, behaviour and eating are frequently placed.According to a 2018 study, more than one-third of girls across South Asia do not go to school during menstruation.Some of that is due to lack of safe and comfortable toilets at school (lack of water, sanitation and hygiene in schools in developing countries).
Laos
A small study in a rural area in Laos (Savannakhet) found that menstruation is considered taboo and shameful.This makes it difficult for sharing knowledge in schools and in homes. Also, there is a low level of menstrual hygiene management. This has a negative effect on the female's social opportunities in achieving good health, to move around freely and to go to school. Some menstruating women (16%) wear double-layer skirts (sinhs) while in the private sphere, compared to 54% who wear disposable pads.
India
Hindus in India tend to view menstruation, especially first menstruation or menarche, as a positive aspect of a girl's life. In South India, girls who experience their menstrual period for the first time are given presents and celebrations to mark the occasion.[59]
In some traditional homes in India, girls and women face restrictive taboos relative to menstruation, such as being denied entry to the kitchen. In areas around the Jhabua district, the belief is that "menstruation is a disease and not a normal biological process", and therefore women who are menstruating are not allowed to sleep on beds, enter kitchens, touch male members of their family or eat spicy foods.
Indonesia
In Bali, a woman is not allowed to enter the kitchen to perform her usual duties, nor is she allowed to have sex with her husband while menstruating. She is to sleep apart from the family and has to keep her clothes that she wears while menstruating away from any clothes that she could wear to the temple. One of the most important regulations is that a woman is not allowed to attend temple while menstruating.
In Sumba, women keep their cycles secret, which makes men see them as deceitful. Women from Sumba believe that because of their secrecy, they will always have control of the men. "Men will never know how much we really can do to control these things. We have all kinds of secrets, and they should always believe that we can control even more than we really can".
Women are supposed to avoid intercourse while menstruating. It is believed that sexually transmitted diseases are the results of women deceiving men and having intercourse while they are menstruating. Gonorrhea translates as "disease you get from women" in Sumba; it has become a social problem. When a man would get this disease, the only way they believed he could rid himself of painful sores was to pass it to a woman. The reasoning was that a woman's body can absorb infection and purge it during a cycle.
Nepal
Hindus in Nepal traditionally keep women isolated during menstruation, when women who are menstruating are not allowed in the household for a period of 3 nights. This practise was banned by the Nepalese Supreme Court in 2005 but still continues.Chhaupadi is a social tradition associated with a menstrual taboo in the western part of Nepal. The tradition prohibits Hindu women and girls from participating in normal family activities while menstruating, as they are considered "impure". In some parts of western Nepal, the custom of chhaupadi requires menstruating girls and women to sleep in a hut called Chhau Goth some distance from the family home.
Sri Lanka
According to a 2018 study, two-thirds of girls in Sri Lanka received no information about menstruation before reaching puberty.
United States
Traditionally, the Yurok in North America practiced menstrual seclusion. Yurok women used a small hut near the main house.
A survey conducted in 1981 showed that a substantial majority of U.S. adults and adolescents believed that it is socially unacceptable to discuss menstruation, especially in mixed company. Many believed that it is unacceptable to discuss menstruation even within the family.[68] Studies in the early 1980s showed that nearly all girls in the United States believed that girls should not talk about menstruation with boys, while more than one-third of girls did not believe it appropriate to discuss menstruation with their father.
United Kingdom
In 2017, Scottish MSP Monica Lennon began work to present an 'Ending Period Poverty' bill to government.[70] In 2019 it was officially lodged and debated in Holyrood.[71] It was approved in November 2020 and made Scotland the first country in the world to make it a legal requirement for period products to be available for free to anyone who needs them.
In 2019, the Government Equalities Office launched a Period Poverty Taskforce to research and end the problem of people who cannot afford menstrual products.
Part 5 of 8
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