Oh yes!! I am a woman….oh yes!! I menstruate… This is how God has created me. Then why would he get angry if I enter a temple while my biological cycle? Why would the world want me to be ashamed of my womanhood? I give rise to a newer generation. Why the same blood which was there around my uterus lining and was supposed to nurture a baby called impure if it is out of my body? It is because of my biological cycle that a baby gets nourishment within my uterus. How come my period makes me unclean and devil?? Yes, that’s what Geeta, Quraan, and Bible taught us. Isn’t it?
I’ve been grown up in a society where periods are considered venomous. Talk in hush-hush tone, cover those napkins under black polythene and don’t touch the idols or pickles otherwise, it will get rotten. A trace of rebel and atheism started rising within me when I was told that my mother is unclean and she is not allowed to take part in rituals. It made me confused back then that how is it possible? While our books told us that mothers are another form of God at the same time our ritual told us she is dirty? Gone are the days when people used to bathe in the pond and river and there were the dangers of catching infection through menstruating women bathing in the same pond. Following our so called tradition blindly, we have come to a point where we end up making a mockery of our own tradition and culture. Sadly we have evolved and changed our lifestyles but not the mindsets. A 13 or 14-year-old girl who is already getting introduced to the strange changes in her body, facing a period discrimination is a kind of another battle for her. We live in a society where Cow’s urine is considered Sacred and blood from a natural process is called impure. If God thinks it is impure he would not have made this at first place.
Being able to reproduce is a power and women are blessed to have it. The contribution of Sikh gurus to break the period myths is commendable. Guru Nanak the founder of Sikhism condemned the practice of treating women as impure while menstruating. The Guru makes it very clear that the menstrual cycle is a God-given process. The blood of a woman is required for the creation of any human being. Perhaps this is why the Sikh community is considered among the most progressive communities in the world.
Ladies!! Take pride when you say you are a woman. You are a creator. Few ml of blood and tissue does not make us dirty but our irrational thinking does so.
Break the taboo!!
–Ragini
