I don’t understand the practice of hiding women away somewhere dirty while they’re menstruating. Men say a woman’s “impure” then. Hello? If she didn’t bleed, you never would have been born. If you’re going to have a segregation practice, shouldn’t it at least be something nice for a woman, like a Mikvah?
Women’s rights activists in Nepal have hailed a Supreme Court order to end discrimination against women during their menstrual cycle.
Women in poor villages in much of western Nepal are forced to stay in dirty cow-sheds outside the home for four days during their monthly period. They are often given unhygienic food and suffer verbal abuse.
The Supreme Court has ordered the government to declare the practice as evil and given it one month to begin stamping the practice out. [Link]
That’s plain wrong, just like hitching a woman to a plow. You’ve still got a long way to go baby, and honestly, a legal change is just the first step.
p.s. Take it from me, Nepali men, yelling at a woman who has the cramps is just not a good idea.
don’t you take that “little prep course thing” in the second grade? i know i did. i really don’t see the church discussing menstruation with a bunch of seven-year olds. it’s neither relevant nor appropriate.
also, you’re not orthodox. you’re catholic. the two may have similarities, but i don’t think ANNA was talking about catholics.
True. Although some do receive Communion later and go thru the same motions. Besides what I was saying is the ‘official instruction’ that is imparted regarding Communion generally doesn’t include restrictions imposed by menstruation.
And true I am Catholic – so does the Orthodox church require this of women or was this just an isolated instance?
my mistake. i thought the “official instruction” you are referring to was the pre-communion preparation. when did you get this additional official instruction? i never did.
That was what I was referring to. I just referred it to as ‘official instruction’ (as a short hand) because that includes the Church’s teaching/inctruction regarding Communion (as opposed to private practice/traditions regarding Communion).
I grew up as a Catholic, my Goan grandmom was a bit weird about the whole period deal. She fed me and my sis things about not doing too much work during your ‘monthlies’; no taking a shower for the entire duration, no touching food cooked in vinegar or any of the yummy salted fish and some others that I don’t remember. Regardless, my mom’s twin sis thought my grandma was antiquated and openly laughed at her ideas and my mom never put any kind of restrictions on us. I feel bad about women who are made to feel inadequate, unclean and so on about something that is just a natural part of our physiology.
Jews probably have been there for long, but given their numbers/influence in Kerala I wonder. Care to elaborate Razib.
nothing much to say. jews have been around cochin since 500. periodic groups showed up from the middle east, spain and germany as late as the 1700s. their numbers probably never exceeded tens of thousands, but one thing that i saw in the ethnography is that one reason jews had relatively high status in south india was that in the hindu milieu their adherence to strict laws as regards ingroup-outgroup purity was a prima facie sign of their elite origins. many of the syrian christians claim brahmin and nayar origins, and are generally accorded high status as well from what i gather, perhaps they mimicked jewish halakah strictures precisely to give a signal to their hindu neighbors.
yeah, i thought that was a hindu wedding thing though
ok.. so im nepali.. and yes it does suck…when u have ur first period u have to stay alone locked in a room for 15 days… and then u have to wash all ur clothes… were treated like slaves.. well i live in america but when i visit nepal i have to go through this… hah yea i agree about the cramps thing!
yeah i think menstrual cycle is considered impure in many cultures. I’m half Nepali and half Tibetan. In Tibetan culture, you can’t pray or engage in religious activities when your have your menstrual cycle.
58 · Me! said
yeah..i heard about that from my newari Nepali friend when we were kids. i think she also said that in the room has to be dark with no sunlight. but i think in the end of it, theres a sort of celebration…well thats how it works in the newari caste.
I think it’s possible that in many cultures, the uncleanness aspect was invented as a way to prevent men from expecting women to perform their normal tasks during their periods. Most women could, of course, but dysmenorrhea affects a large minority of women. I had it, and I had to start taking birth control pills because I literally could only lay on the couch and moan for the first day or two, even with prescription painkillers. I have a friend who vomits every month because her pain is so bad. Historically, if dysmenorrheic women’s husbands expected them to do their normal duties, the men would likely be disappointed, see their authority threatened, and lose face and/or beat the crap out of them. By marking menstruating women as “unclean,” men get to save face and feel superior, women get to not get beaten into a bloody pulp, and society continues to function without upsetting the patriarchy. Ta-da!