An NGO, We Inspire Nepal, posted a photo album with witty, pointed and revealing statements about our society and its views on menstruation, clearly to raise awareness.
This is @WeInspireNepal‘s amazing awareness-raising #MenstruationMatters photo album on Facebook. #Nepal https://t.co/Mfe1l34UgX /1
— Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) May 31, 2017
(Click here to directly go to We Inspire Nepal’s Facebook post.)
A few that I really liked:
Incidentally, I should point out that females in conservative Hindu families suffer the most from menstruation-related discrimination and prohibitions etc. The most stringent seem to live in the Far-Western region, the region where, in some instances, menstruating girls and women are banished to an unsafe shed for the duration, in a practice called Chaupadi. Some of the unfortunate girls and women end up dying!
My family being Tibetan-Buddhist, we don’t hold such beliefs about menstruation.
The response to that post by a Facebook page calling itself Troll Nepal epitomizes the level of ignorance (and arrogance) on the part of us, Nepalese men. (Click here for an image of the post.)
This is Troll Nepal’s cringe-worthy, ignorant and arrogant response to it. (Link to original post: https://t.co/9oIOXJEN5V) /2 pic.twitter.com/sdorqIfdhM
— Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) May 31, 2017
The last time I checked, the post had received 5.4K reactions, mostly (4.5K) Thumbs Up and 43 Love!
It reads thus:
Yesterday, on Menstruation Hygiene day, I saw many posts. The following texts were on placards.
“On any other day, Queen of the home. But for 5 days, you won’t drink the water we have handled?!” [This, incidentally, is the first of the three I shared above.]
When they are having their period, if a male, carrying some food, inadvertently even comes in contact with them, they themselves will say, “Shoo…Shoo….You can’t touch me today!”
To men, it [touching them when they are menstruating] means nothing, but women think and believe that, “If I get touched when menstruating, I’ll have committed a sin…it’ll be this and it’ll be that.” Where is the males’ culpability in this?!
They say, when menstruating, one should not enter a temple. When a female is menstruating, who but herself knows about it? Why not just enter the temple unobtrusively? But women themselves won’t because “Doing so is a sin” is a belief they themselves subscribe to.
Pointing fingers at men in everything — yes, menstruation is a natural process, yes it hurts, is painful — but where is the fault of us men in all this?!
You engage in activism over everything using placards, saying this and that. Why don’t you go to the Gods demanding, “Make men go through menstruation rather than us”? There is a limit to everything!
Not content with that post, some time later, they added a comment underneath, which received almost 550 reactions!
And not content with d post, Troll Nepal also left d following logically-flawed comment under their Facebook post. 3/3 #menstruationmatters pic.twitter.com/10qYMD0r6S
— Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) May 31, 2017
As for the translation of the comment, their line of logic and argument is so flawed, pathetic and sad that I am NOT going to even dignify it by doing so.
It’s clear that the men administrators of Troll Nepal have no clue how strongly patriarchal our society is and how it dictates most — if not ALL — of our cultural, social, religious, economic and political norms and practices.
So clueless — and patriarchy so pervasive — in fact that they flout and parade patriarchy, and all the inherent structural privileges, completely unaware that’s what they are doing! The post displays a complete and utter lack of knowledge and understanding of how our girls and women, for example, are conditioned by our patriarchal society.
No wonder, the knee jerk reaction of boys and men, whenever they see or hear girls and women raising their voices and trying to highlight and draw attention to their issues and plight, is to redirect and refocus them…to their own selves, instead of stepping back and attempting to learn about — and from — them.
And that has had devastating consequences for our females, and by extension, for our society and country.
We are a country where most girls and women can’t even walk the streets and paths of the country with their heads held high! We are country where casual sexism and daily sexual and other forms of harassment is the norm. We are a country where, according to the 2011 census report, almost 3 out of 4 married women were married (off) before the age of 20. We are a country that provides insignificant opportunities for girls and women to realize their full potential. We are a country with minimal women representation in the three biggest branches of the government and other select professional organizations. (Also see Hall of Shame I and Hall of Shame II.) We are a country where laws and even the constitution blatantly discriminates against women, let alone provide the necessary protection.
As a result, we have become a country where girls and women suffer so much more than boys and men, in every way, that SUICIDE has become their biggest killer!
When will we, boys and men of Nepal, ever listen and pay attention when girls and women speak?!
When will it ever occur to us that silencing girls and women (and subjugating them) is actually hurting all of us?!
When will it ever get through our thick skull that giving them a voice is almost half the battle to a more socially progressive society, and therefore a more progressive country?!
(Do you want to learn what more you can do and/or what we are doing about it? Click here and here and here.)
