‘Menstruation means impurity’: multilevel interventions are needed to break the menstrual taboo in Nepal

Background During their menstrual period, women are generally considered impure in Nepal; in the rural areas of the western part of the country, they are even banished to stay in sheds (called chhaupadi) during this time, which increases their vulnerability to a variety of health consequences. There is lack of clarity regarding the effectiveness of interventions that have been implemented to address menstrual taboo and improve menstrual hygiene and practices in Nepal (e.g., public awareness, community sensitization and legislation). In this paper, we discuss why menstruation management interventions, particularly those implemented to change the menstrual taboo might not work, and the opinions and experiences regarding the implementation of such interventions. Main text Anecdotal reports from the field and empirical studies suggest that interventions to address menstrual taboos have only been effective for short durations of time due to several reasons. First, local community stakeholders have been reluctant to take actions to abandon retrogressive menstrual practices in rural areas. Second, women who have stopped practising chhaupadi have faced stigma (e.g., fear of exclusion) and discrimination (e.g., blaming, physical and verbal abuse). Third, contextual factors, such as poverty and illiteracy, limit the effectiveness of such interventions. Fourth, community sensitization activities against chhaupadi have faced resistance from community leaders and traditional healers. Fifth, the law prohibiting chhaupadi has also faced implementation problems, including poor filing of complaints. Conclusion Multilevel, multisectoral interventions could be more effective than single-component interventions in breaking the prevailing menstrual taboo and in improving menstrual health and hygiene practices among young girls and women in the rural areas of Nepal. Moreover, interventions that have an active community mobilization component could be effective within local contexts and cultural groups.

Theorizing a model information pathway to mitigate the menstrual taboo

Summary The impact of menstruation on the society is directly seen in the educational opportunities, quality of life and professional endeavors of females. However, lack of menstrual hygiene management has indirect implication on the balance and development of the society and nation. This study is set in the Indian context. The researcher identifies actors with a potential of mitigating menstrual taboo and then theorizes an optimal information pathway to mitigate menstrual taboo. Diffusion of innovation, framing and agenda setting theories contribute as frameworks in the creation of an optimal pathway to dissolve the menstrual taboo. The actors identified in this model are scholars, health activists, students, NGOs, media, government, corporations and villages or communities. The determinants for the direction and the order of the pathway to diffuse knowledge and confidence among these actors are the ultimate goal and sustainability of the model, strengths and weaknesses of actors, and actors’ extent of influence. Considering the absence of an existing alternate, this model pathway provides a solid framework purely from a theoretical perspective. Theoretically, this model pathway is possible, practical and optimal.

Chhaupadi: A Menstrual Taboo in Far Western Nepal

Chhaupadi is a practice where girls/women are not allowed to enter inside the house, touch water and milk for 4 to 7 days during their menstruation period. They must stay in a hut outside, identified as a Chhaupadi house. A mixed method study (QUAN+qual), was conducted to find out the practice of school going female adolescents regarding chhaupadi practice in Doti District of Far-western region of Nepal. It was found that Practice of chhaupadi ritual was significantly associated with ethnicity (OR: 54.667 95% CI, 5.990-498.909), education of father (OR: 8.743 95% CI, 1.140-67.076), education of mother (OR:8.069 95% CI, 1.814-35.892), occupation of father (OR: 3.337 95% CI, 1.262-8.823) and family Income (OR: 4.085 95%CI, 1.576-10.589). The findings also revealed that chhaupadi ritual has been practiced by in spite of the fact that it has serious effect in the health of the female. Also, it has threatened the security of the women, sometimes resulting brutal consequences like rape and death of the women. The study concluded that beside all other factors responsible for continuation of chhaupadi ritual, there is a strong superstitious belief that various miss happenings will occur due to violation of chhaupadi ritual. Therefore, it is necessary to increase awareness by lunching awareness programs and should be emphasized in school curriculum as well.

mini-k’iwh’e:n (For That Purpose—I Consider Things)

Historically, studies of Indigenous menstrual practices were mired in assumptions that these practices were oppressive toward women. The high regard for menstruation as demonstrated through Indigenous women’s coming of age ceremonies and the continuing rituals of menstruation among Indigenous peoples has not been critically engaged with, and is often relegated to dismissive and oversimplified statements. The Western menstrual taboo not only influences theories of Indigenous menstrual customs but also relies on settler colonial rhetoric to help support a continuing politics of taboo. Although there have been numerous cultural studies of modern menstrual discourse focused on how contemporary Western menstrual practices are rooted in patriarchal bias, even self-declared feminist literature treats the menstrual taboo as nearly universal to Indigenous menstrual practices. This article provides an Indigenous feminist critique of contemporary menstrual discourse. I begin with a short history of settler colonialism and menstrual discourse and then analyze contemporary popular menstrual discourse. The final part of this article is an intervention on the assumed Indigenous menstrual taboo by looking at menstrual practices of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, located in Northern California, to demonstrate that for this culture and society, there is no menstrual taboo. It is through this in-depth analysis of Hupa menstrual practices that we see how Indigenous feminisms challenge settler colonialism and provide a decolonizing lens to contemporary scholarship that not only imagines alternative analyses but also acknowledges that these alternatives did, have always, and will always exist.

Menstrual Taboo dan Kontrol Sosial Perempuan Menurut Muhammad ‘Izzah Darwazah (Studi Intertekstualitas Terhadap Al-Qur’an dan Bibel)

Menstrual taboo adalah istilah yang digunakan dalam kajian antropologi terkait dengan pengaruh menstruasi bagi perempuan dalam kehidupan sosial. Darah menstruasi dianggap darah yang tabu. Berdasarkan tradisi Yahudi, perempuan yang sedang menstruasi harus diasingkan ke tempat yang lain. Ia dilarang berinteraksi dengan keluarganya dan menyentuh masakan apapun. Kronologi turunnya ayat tentang menstruasi juga berhubungan dengan tradisi Yahudi ini. terlebih, saat ini menstrual taboo memberikan pengaruh yang cukup besar di beberapa negara, seperti India, Amerika dan beberapa provinsi di Indonesia. Salah satu mufassir yang memfokuskan kajiannya pada hubungan antara al-Qur’an dan Bibel adalah Muhammad ‘Izzah Darwazah. Dalam tafsirnya, Darwazah menjelaskan tentang menstrual taboo dalam perspektif al-Qur’an dan Bibel. Artikel ini akan membahas tentang menstrual taboo menurut Darwazah. Selain itu, artikel ini juga akan menjelaskan tentang pengaruh menstrual taboo terhadap relasi antara laki-laki dan perempuan serta berusaha menangkap respon Darwazah terhadap permasalahan ini.Kata kunci: Menstrual taboo, al-Qur’an, Bibel, Darwazah, Gender.

Menolak Menstrual Taboo dan "Angan-angan" Fiqh Kesetaraan

Women's issues have always stimulated discussion; and amongst the most debated issues is about menstruation or popularly known as haidh in Islamic literature. This signifies that although menstruation is a routine event for most adult women, it has significant consequencesfor their lives. The debates on the issues of menstruation is heated when they are not only seen within the context of women's reproductive and sexual health, but also put into the theological frame, such as in the event related to religious rituals of prayers and hajj (pilgrimage to the holy land Mecca), in which menstruating women are prohibited to engage with.

Dari Mitos Menstrual Taboo Ke Dunia Kecantikan dan Fashion

Menstrual Taboo is a never ending phenomenon. We can study about it from different points of view: medical, psychological, anthropological, mythological, theological as well as ideological perspectives. Talking about the popular myth of menstrual taboo, there are "evil eyes", "huts" etc, that protect women in her monthly period. Right now, the myth of menstrual taboo has deviated into the farms of menstrual creations such as the present of cosmetology like Kohl, eye liner, shoes and fashion. Jilbab, as a code of women's dress has actually been widely practiced far before emergence of Islam. Nevertheless, when Islam come to be spread, jilbab was associated with several superstitions, one of them is menstrual taboo. In the last ten years, Jilbab for teenagers and young women has been "booming in Indonesia. Many schools from elementary to university, and governmental offices as w~U have made jilbab as part of their official uniforms.