#3: “Periods are a tool of emancipation and a matter of human dignity”
From our focal video this week, we follow Tvunyaz's, a Mother of three, routine during her period. During this blog, I will be raising the voices of Tvunyaz and many women in Madagascar during their menstruation cycles. Warning: I personally think it's very important not to shy away from words such as period, menstruation, vagina, urinary tract infections (UTIs), and others - as my blog post will indicate.
Trigger Warming: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Tvunyaz and Period Poverty
For most of us living in the UK, being able to wash our vaginas, penises and other body parts daily does not seem like a luxury. However, it's important to remember, for many women and men across the world, this absolutely does is a luxury. Not rinsing our vaginas, especially during menstruation, can cause or worsen uncomfortable infections, including thrush and urinary tract infections (UTIs) that are very common among women. Menstruation leads to 1 in 10 women missing school during their cycle (UNICEF 2014) and dropping out in Sub-Saharan Africa due to the shame and lack of sanitary products, lowering their rate of socio-economic development (WASH 2019). This is an element of period poverty, defined as a lack of menstruation education, sanitary products, and necessary WASH (safe water, sanitation, and hygiene) toilet facilities (Tull 2019) and often leads to increased child marriage and abuse (UNFPA 2018).
Furthermore, women with female genital mutilation (FGM) can experience even greater pain menstruating, as well as during sexual intercourse and bleeding whilst urinating (Reisel and Creighton 2015). The common use of unclean rags as sanitary towels during menstruation puts those with FGM at even greater risk. A violation of human rights, FGM is the partial or total removal of external female genitalia (WHO 2020) displayed below.
A diagram showing the variations of FGM. Hear about Hibo's story here.
FGM is a common practice across 29 countries, shown below, including the Maasai and Samburu tribes of Kenya (Graamans et al. 2017) (of whom I spoke of in blog #2).
Crucially, a growing number of NGO- and state-led initiatives are being aimed at eliminating period poverty across Africa. Read more here!
Period Shaming
There is still another consequence of period poverty that does not get enough attention: period shaming. Such "stigma is potent, ubiquitous, and impactful" (Bodel 2013) and causes serious human rights concerns for women. Period shaming has such significant psychosocial impacts, a 14-year-old Kenyan schoolgirl committed suicide after being humiliated by her teacher (BBC 2019). This was even after Kenya passed a law in 2017 to provide free sanitary towels for schoolgirls. In achieving SDG 5, SDG 6, and SDG 3 we must tackle period shaming because, while women may have access to pads, they may still not go out in public and feel ashamed during their period. This undoubtedly affects women's quality of life, rate of socio-economic opportunity, and, overall, development and empowerment.
Elements of a patriarchal society also make Tvunyaz's menstruation even harder as she does not get any assistance from her husband. Her husband says "the Creator made man King ... a woman will always be inferior to a man" and that Tvunyaz must kneel as she serves him food after preparing it as he rests and waits. I know many women whose periods are so painful, tiring and physically restricting due to such discomfort, they have to stay home and can just do very limited activities, such as only getting up to use the bathroom - that, in itself, I find very painful when menstruating. Moreover, Black women are 3x more likely to develop uterine fibroids than White women that make period pain even worse (Al-Hendy et al. 2017). Millions of women across Africa could be living with this illness (or even endometriosis) and wouldn't be aware if they did not have access to relevant gynaecological health facilities.
Though there is more work to be done in curtailing these forms of underdevelopment across Africa, I believe Madagascar is taking necessary action to reduce both period shaming and period poverty. The next step in this progress is to build adequate WASH facilities, and make men also understand periods are not taboo and include them in such schemes! To battle this and empower communities in reaching SDG 5, SDG 6, SDG 3, and SDG 1, we need everyone on board!
Another great post! I agree with you - it is so important not to shy away from using the correct words to describe our anatomy and the health consequences that come with insufficient sanitation. I was saddened to hear about the Kenyan school girl, and it was a great example to show the importance of de-stigmatising periods!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Heather! Being transparent of peoples realities is an important theme throughout my series (and generally in my own life). It is very saddening and disheartening, may she rest in peace. Change MUST be seen.
DeleteI am so glad you addressed this topic in your blog as people so often shy away from it or see it as a "taboo" topic. This has definitely made me more aware of the issues. Awful to hear about the schoolgirl who committed suicide, highlights how its so important to bring these issues out into the open. Was saddening to hear how the man in the video views women - theres still such a long way to go in the fight for equality but its also important to listen to other peoples viewpoints to get a better understanding of the reasons behind them
ReplyDeleteYes it must be brought to the forefront of discussions using the appropriate terminology! Regarding this "taboo" topic, the video also gave light into even the translations of "period" in Malagasy which I found very interesting as it, again, demonstrates the ingrained complexities associated with menstruation. It is very sad about the young schoolgirl...may she rest in peace. Absolutely, I agree! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
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