Menstruation and the religious taboos for women

It's something polite society normally never speaks about in public. In fact, such is the studied avoidance of the subject of menstruation that one would think it wasn't something that happened to one half of the world's population for four-six days every month. And yet it's something that's now being, metaphorically speaking, shouted out from the rooftops to wit, the heated debate over the #HappyToBleed campaign on Facebook and Twitter against menstruation taboos that continue to dog our society.

The provocation for it was a statement by Prayar Goplakrishnan, president of the managing body of Sabarimala temple in Kerala, that women would be allowed into the temple only if a scanning machine were invented to check whether it was the "right time" for them to enter — that is, that they weren't menstruating. Angered by Goplakrishnan's statement, Nikita Azad, a college student in far-off Patiala, posted a letter on an online media platform, in which she said, "I am shattered to know that for one of the biggest historic temples in India, bleeding is a sin".

The letter went viral on social media, and soon you had the #HappyToBleed hashtag on Facebook. This is the second time this year that social media has broken through the veil of silence surrounding menstruation — there was the 'Pads Against Sexism' campaign in April that had students in campuses around the country pasting sanitary napkins in public places. That campaign was inspired by Elona Kastrati, a 19-year-old girl in Kalsruhe, a small town in Germany, who stuck sanitary pads with messages like, "Imagine if men were as disgusted with rape as with periods", on International Women's Day this year. Clearly, even developed countries in the West are no better when it comes to prejudices about menstruation.

"While my immediate family did not believe many of these things, I know my friends were asked not to touch the tulsi plant or go into the kitchen. I remember in school, the teacher used to ask before Lohri for girls who were having their periods to step aside," says Nikita, a student activist who has taken part in several gender rights campaigns on campus.

A study undertaken by Whisper, the leading sanitary pad brand which ran the memorable 'Touch the Pickle' advertising campaign last year exhorting women to break menstruation taboos, shows just how widespread and irrational are the cultural practices around menstruation. The study, conducted by international market research agency IPSOS, found that 65 per cent of urban women across India wash their hair only on the fourth day of the menses, 59 per cent don't touch pickle and 54 per cent believe in not watering plants during periods. Additionally, 48 per cent of married women in north India don't share the same room as their husband during periods and 48 per cent women in western India believe they should not set curd and 55 per cent that they should not touch the masala box.

Interestingly, while 'Touch the Pickle' was a brave social campaign and did help uncover the veil of silence surrounding the subject, the Whisper campaigns continue to use the colour blue to signify menstrual blood. Asked why red wasn't used even now, the spokesperson for Procter & Gamble, the company that owns the Whisper brand, says, "Globally and in India across all leading sanitary napkin brands, menstrual blood is denoted as blue in colour. We were the first brand to not only show a sanitary napkin on TV but also the first to say "periods'. As we embark on this journey to bring about a change in mindset…we have consciously chosen to develop communication which at least one will be receptive to."
 

Many religions, same taboo
The taboos surrounding menstruation are especially deep-seated in religious matters. Most temples across India restrict the entry of menstruating women. In some like the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala, women in the reproductive age — girls between the ages of 10 and 50 years who could be menstruating — are not allowed within a six kilometre radius of the shrine; they must remain at Pamba, while the men trek the last stretch.

Which brings to mind the controversy over a woman offering puja last weekend at the ancient Shani temple in Shingnapur town in Ahmednagar. At Shingnapur, women are allowed to enter the temple, but they cannot step on to the raised platform — the chautara — where the idol is placed. They can come only as far as the barricade. So deeply entrenched is this belief against women, that there was widespread protest in the temple town over the woman's transgression and pujaris did a "purification" ritual.

Hindu places of worship are not the only ones to forbid the entry of women. Menstruating women are not allowed into the Ranakpur Jain temple in Rajasthan and many dargahs, the tomb-shrines of Muslim saints, too bar women from entering. In Mumbai, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan took the trustees of Haji Ali Dargah to court, alleging that the restriction on women entering was against the Quran. The trust, in its reply to the court, said that it was a "grievous sin" for women to be in close proximity to the grave of a male Muslim saint. It also cited menstruation as a reason for not allowing women into the dargah.

Most religions around the world — barring Sikhism — consider menstruating women unclean. The Halakha, the Jewish code of law, forbids physical contact, including sex, between men and women, during menstruation. Christianity, especially in some Orthodox Churches, forbids women from entering churches.

Of purity and power
What is it about menstruation that raises the hackles of the keepers of our religious places? Why do they consider bleeding, to quote Nikita, "a sin"?

According to Sinu Joseph of Mythri, a Bangalore-based NGO that spreads menstrual health awareness among adolescent girls, the entire controversy is centred around a misunderstanding. "It is not that women are 'unclean'.

According to our ancient Ayurvedic texts, menstruation is a way of cleansing doshas — a special ability given to women." She further explains in a recent blog post, "Any activity that interferes with this necessary downward flow of energy during menstruation should be avoided. During menstruation, women are more likely to absorb other energies in their environment. This forms the basis of most cultural practices around menstruation in India."

Another myth links menstruation to Lord Indra who, on being cursed after killing Vishwaroopacharya, the teacher of the gods, decided to distribute the curse. As a result, women began menstruating. Devdutt Pattanaik, the author of several books on Indian mythology, has written: "The practice of restricting access to menstruating women is rooted in the pre-modern belief that links purity and power to bodily fluids. Not spilling male genital fluid (semen) makes men powerful and pure. Inability to hold back female genital fluid (menstruation) makes women weak and impure."

Is there any basis to these beliefs? Modern science, predictably, dismisses them outright. According to Dr SK Bhandari, a senior gynaecologist at Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, "There was probably a justification for such practices in earlier times, when women used cloth pads and there was only one communal bathroom in the house. But now, with modern conveniences such as sanitary napkins and private bathrooms, these practices just don't make sense. I tell all my patients to do as much as they feel like, without discomfort — they can run, travel by bus, cook, whatever."

It's not just the limits they place on women's mobility and freedom that make the silence surrounding menstruation in India so pernicious. Speak to NGOs that work in this sector and they'll tell you it has far graver health problems. "In conservative rural India, women feel so ashamed about menstruation that they don't dry the cloth in the sun. They wash it, often not very well, and just stuff the used cloth in some corner where no one can see it. Often, this leads to serious infections," says Durga Prasad Gurve, an activist from Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district. But do the custodians of our religious places care?