Smash The Shame For Menstrual Hygiene Day

Maghen Quadrini

28th May is the day to spread awareness about female hygiene and stigmas associated with periods. Maghen Quadrini works with Akhaya, a local NGO that focuses on issues around human rights for women. She shares the challenges she has seen while on board.

“Women in Myanmar do not love themselves. Our culture dehumanizes them.”

Deborah, 21 is an advocate for women’s health rights at a local NGO who speaks from experience having witnessed the inequality in Burmese society that stems from a lack of knowledge about sexual and reproductive health education.  

Menstruation cycles are normal, natural and provides important body hormones to keep a woman’s body healthy. In Myanmar, countless women are denied opportunity because of their periods.

Tampons are not sold anywhere out of fear that they will tear the hymen and condemn a girl to impurity.  Sanitary pads can be found on the bottom of convenience stores and upon purchase are shoved in black bags. Many young girls seek out their mothers and older sisters to buy these products for them. When they are not accessible, which is often in rural areas, women resort to leaves or are sent away to bleed until their cycle has finished.

There are limited resources for young women to seek out about menstrual hygiene and due to the shame associated with period blood, even tools that are available are abandoned for fear of judgement. Inevitably, the result is a generation of young men growing up to believe that women are dirty and a generation of women who accept the same verdict.

Twenty year old Myat Ei Mon, a young aspiring epidemiologist, remembers getting her period and having no idea what was happening to her.

“I didn’t tell my Mom until I got it for the third time. It was painful but I was shy and thought I had a problem – I thought I was dying.”

24 year old Ohnmar shares a similar experience.

“I cried when I got my period. I felt angry because I didn’t understand where this pain was coming from. I didn’t want menstruation because I didn’t understand it.”

One of the many problems that comes from using stigmas to promote knowledge is the dangerous short and long term effects that comes from women not knowing their bodies and what’s worse – not having a safe space to reverse that.

“People in Myanmar believe our blood is dirty. My culture does not talk about sex so learning about sexual reproductive health is not possible. If you talk about these things, it means you are interested in sex and people judge,” Ohnmar explains.

Cultural practices such as washing the undergarments of men and women separately are part of Burmese customs. The reason behind the separation of the clothes is entrenched in the social belief that menstrual blood is dirty and will make men less powerful if the clothes are washed together. Some men even refuse to sleep in the same bed as their wives if they are menstruating.

“Menstruation symbolizes womanhood and we accept it, but we don’t want it. Men reduce us because of our period cycles,” says Deborah.

Nearly a year ago, 37 year old feminist, Burmese artist Ma Ei attempted to break the menstruation stigma by turning her period into a 3 day piece of performance through a show titled “Period.” Ma Ei is not the first women to publicly exhibit her period as an awareness tool to educate and break social stereotypes that discriminate women because of her menstrual cycle.

Kiran Gandhi was called disgusting after her choice to run the London Marathon in 2015 with blood running down her legs. Gandhi stood by her choice to do so to raise awareness about women around the world who don’t have access to feminine products. Similar acts have inspired men and women activists to speak out against the taboos that keep women from servicing education and health resources.

41 year old Papa believes it is possible to change the mentality of men and women in Myanmar surrounding the period taboo.

“Women are strong and women are powerful. We need to educate ourselves to know that menstrual blood is not dirty. Our uterus is amazing. Women cannot love their body until they understand it and learn how to take care of it.”

Being unable to purchase sanitary napkins and facing judgement for menstruating comes at an extraordinary price. Girls are more likely to drop out of school, lose pay at work by taking sick days to deal with cramps and also are also at risk of mental illness when constantly filled with fear and shame.

The biological fact of the matter is that all women menstruate, yet the necessary conversations on this subject have yet to be had in many areas of Myanmar. This lack of awareness has left women at the bottom of the social, political and economic hierarchies which has led to adverse effects in national development. Without proper resources on menstruation that any man or woman can access, an uncomfortable paradigm will linger that fails to connect female hygiene and gender equality.