Fighting Menstrual Discrimination in Bangladesh and Nepal

Proma: Especially in rural areas, safe sanitary products are not accessible to everyone. Most of the girls still use cotton fabrics. If you don't properly wash and dry these fabrics, bacteria can build there easily and might cause health issues such as yeast infection, or in extreme cases even cervical cancer. They usually wash those clothes and hide them behind a window or inside their room to dry, which is difficult in the humid weather conditions. As our organization cannot change the affordability of safe menstrual products, we at least try to educate girls on how to use the materials available to them safely.

Proma: In urban areas, the internet plays an important role. Girls between 19 and 30 can access the internet via their smartphones to find information. In rural areas, however, there are many misconceptions regarding menstruation. The only sources of information are other girls, mothers, or female family members who also were not properly educated on it. Parents in urban areas can let their daughters visit doctors when they feel unwell. In rural areas, access to health services is limited. Unless somebody is seriously ill, they don’t seek a doctor. Menstruation and women’s health issues in general are overlooked. They usually go undiagnosed and without treatment. Yet these issues can be troublesome later when they are in their 20s or 30s or trying to conceive a baby. This is why we try to stress that girls should be diagnosed with any of their issues since their early adolescence.

Proma: To reach them, we needed to involve parents, schoolteachers, and development workers. It is important that they are aware of the problems the girls face, take them seriously and share information with them. We worked with educational institutions in rural areas and explained to schoolteachers why it is important to educate girls on their menstrual period.

Proma: They were interested, but most of them said that they are not sure how the students will react. Some teachers worried that girls would feel uncomfortable, especially with male students present. Yet I think it is important to involve male students and let them know what their female peers go through. Boys often tease girls on their period. We tell them that they should not say something negative to female classmates if they see that she is facing troubles related to menstruation.

Proma: When we invited some of the girls to talk about their experience during menstruation, they agreed first. But when they showed up and saw all the cameras and the male cameraman, they hesitated. Some of them even cancelled, and we had to reschedule the entire shooting and look for other people. Some wanted their face blurred or wore masks. This hesitation shows that there are still a lot of societal stigmata that we need to fight.