28 May, The World Menstruation Day: Break Taboos on Menstruation, Raise your Voice, and Make Periods Public

28 May is celebrated as World Menstrual Hygiene Day, a day dedicated to menstrual hygiene. We, here at Pandeez are also celebrating this special day with the true spirit of feminism and woman empowerment.

Why the World should celebrate Menstruation Hygiene Day(MHD)?

Because menstrual hygiene is not only about menstrual pads or tampons or menstrual cups. It’s not about a choice between a maxi pad or an eco-friendly pad or a disposable pad or a renewable pad.

It’s not about that it’s not about the medicines to take to deal with menstrual cramps or hot water bottles. it’s not about that it’s not about the number of ounces of blood that come out of any random woman each month.

World Women’s Empowerment Day

it’s actually a day that is right at the heart of women, of women’s empowerment, of women’s rights, of gender equality, of how as women as girls we think about ourselves, we think about our bodies, we think about our identities.

How the world responds to our womanhood, to our bodies, to ourselves; so you can think about it rather than just world menstrual hygiene day, you can think about it as world women’s empowerment day, day of women’s equality…gender equality, and women’s upliftment. The day you can think about it as world girls and women recognizing the presence of the divine within them, you can think about it as world creation day because of course without menstruation there couldn’t be any creation and so it’s a very very special global day.

Break the Taboo

There are so many beautiful aspects and elements to talk about, first of all, the taboo of menstruation: this idea that somehow we should not be talking about.

Now is the time we must break the silence. we must end the taboos. We must do that because as long as we are silent about menstruation, our daughters, our sisters, and our friends will suffer from menstruation. As menstruation itself is a beautiful process, hence we don’t suffer from menstruation but from unnecessary illnesses, and infections simply due to

• not having the information or access to the products
• not keeping themselves clean and hygienic during those days

but also suffering from this sense because it is a taboo that somehow there is something wrong, that it is something to be ashamed of.

But menstruation is neither an illness nor a problem to be ashamed of. It’s just something we need to take care of.

In the same way that we take care of so much else about our bodies. But this taboo around silence has created a situation where girls are staying home instead of going to school, missing critical days of their education, and ultimately all too frequently having to drop out of school.

simply because nobody has taught them how to take care of themselves, simply because they don’t have the information or access to the products that would enable them to come to school while staying clean and hygienic or because their schools don’t have toilets or the toilets don’t have doors and so there isn’t a way that the girls can stay clean at school.

Gender-based Violence

This is violence! This is gender-based violence! you don’t have to actually raise your fist against a woman for violence. Denying our girls the right to education is also a special form of violence, simply because we can’t build toilets in schools or simply because we can’t put doors on the toilets in schools or because we are embarrassed or ashamed or don’t know how to talk about menstrual hygiene.

and so our girls are deprived of the information and education that is gender-based violence to create a situation where these girls must miss school. every month and ultimately fall behind and so many drop out. That is gender-based violence is a more sophisticated way: to have our girls and women every month feel like there is something wrong with them that they are somehow sick or tainted or dirty or impure.

that is gender-based violence. violence is not only to our physical bodies violence is to our minds and our hearts and our self-identities.

So when we come together to end gender-based violence, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that menstrual hygiene and ending the taboos, ending the silence is also part of our commitment.

DON’T SAY “I’m down“, SAY “I am up”

I heard girls in India talking about “I’m down, I’m down” during periods. And at that time they are not allowed to enter any mandir (temples) and they would say because “I am down”.

Though I was very confused and I used to think prayer is the best solution to depression to frustration and being in the mandir is the best solution to depression due to menstrual mood swings.

I was confused as “I’m down” means there is something wrong with me. Our periods should not make us feel ashamed, should not make us sad, should not make us depressed. yes of course menstrual cramps sometimes take us down. in fact, the reason we menstruate

Because the divine has incarnated through us with the power of creation. Before we start menstruating and in the years after menopause when we’re not menstruating we cannot create.

We can only create life when we menstruate. So menstruation and creation go hand in hand. When we menstruate we must remember “I am not down, but up” because flowing through me is that presence of the divine. I am up because flowing through me is the power of creation. that divine power of creation is in me and so it’s the time of the month to re-remember “I am that mother goddess… I am that divine creator”. Yes, this is a blessing as we’re here in the beautiful trees, beautiful woods.

We all Must Stay Together

A tree begins with a seed. but to take that seed and to turn it into a tree — that’s the power of mother earth. it’s all feminine, it is the power of that divine feminine and that is where it is so important for us to remember this is a time of empowerment and this is where we need to come together also more and more in sisterhood. re-remember how trees stay standing: not because each of them individually has roots; that is so strong but actually because of the roots.

These trees intersect just below the ground and that intersection of the roots keeps them standing that is what gives them their strength. As trees as women, let us remember that each of us stands tall, stands strong as we grow from our roots to the heights but if we are going to be sustained if we’re going to be nourished if we’re going to be nurtured the only way to do that is intersecting with the roots of others and that is why we all must stay together so strongly in sisterhood.

When we feel depressed, we feel frustrated. We feel it with us and it’s a time for us to actually look back for a moment interestingly on this day of menstrual hygiene day to look at the metaphor of menstruation and creation.