Freedom From Shaming #freedom from bias

I still have vivid memory of that day. It was a beautiful bright, colorful day which turned into my worst nightmare.I was thirteen year old fun loving , carefree girl then. Dressed in my favorite attire, I was waiting for my cousin’s wedding ceremony to begin.For one of the ceremony we had to go temple. The moment I was about to enter, my aunt held my hand tightly and didn’t let me enter because I was menstruating then. She said I will be cursed if I enter temple. It was like a bolt out of the blue, I was scared and clueless as I had no idea what wrong I had done. That was my first encounter with the Period TABOO.

We are in the 71TH year of Independence, which means we are independent , free and democratic country. Of course, until we are not poking our nose in other’s business.We are growing and progressing in every way. But there is something I am still trying to get free from, something which is as natural as the air I breathe, something which I can’t control, something which is so biological. I want a freedom from the shame, I want the freedom from that look ‘ oh periods ‘, oh!! she just said periods, oh ! look at her no shame she is talking about it so loudly. Yes, I want a freedom from it. I want to know the logic and reason behind it. I want to know why I am debarred from going to temple, why I can’t touch pickle.How suddenly I become so impure, Just why??

I don’t mean to hurt anybody’s belief or religious sentiment but for my own self, to broaden the horizon of my knowledge I just want to know why ?? I would be really thankful to anyone reading this post, who can give me a valid reason Does hitting a puberty the worst nightmare ? should we be telling our daughters its a curse ? A hormone that protect us is a shameful thing for us.

Well, scientifically ‘  period is when a woman’s body releases tissue it no longer needs. This tissue comes from the uterus, which is where a baby can develop in the female body. Every month or so, the uterus lining gets thicker to prepare for a fertilized egg if the woman becomes pregnant. If the egg doesn’t get fertilized, that lining is released from the body as blood through the vagina. This monthly process is called menstruation or a period. 

So,what in this entire process make us impure ? and why we are being shamed about it ? and why it is a taboo to even talk about it.  I know I am bombarding zillions of question in single breathe but I am eager to know why? If I talk about old times , women were asked to sleep and stay separately because in those days they use to work very hard and everything was manual. So in order to give them some rest they were asked to stay separately. Also those days we didn’t had sanitary napkins and using same cloth again and again while bleeding could be a cause of infection  and to avoid the infection getting spread they were asked to stay in isolation  but what  we have concluded with that? Periods are god given biological process so why we are not allowed to pray?

When girls hit puberty they are already going through so many hormonal changes and pain , if that was not enough we added more by making her embarrass about this entire process.

Things are changing slowly but surely like a applauding change in Nepal where the parliament has enforced a law that people treating menstruating women as untouchable will be criminalized. For more reference refer  to the link  Nepal ban

But my question remains the same what on earth will happen and why it can’t be treated as a normal biological process? Why I need to talk about it in hushed tone .So, this Independence, I want freedom from the shame I am made to go through right from the time I hit puberty to the time I go to buy sanitary napkins. I want freedom from that look that people give me while I step out to buy. It’s something very natural and something I am proud of.

P.S : Your feedback is a fuel to my writings , so keep pouring. Image courtesy :wfdd.org