Original Zhongnan housing research team Zhongnan housing world citizenship education
Xiaonan has something to say
If you are a woman, when you see the news that "doctors and nurses in the epidemic area do not eat for several hours and try not to go to the toilet in order to save protective clothing", you may think: "what about the female medical staff in the physiological period?"
Realizing this, Liang Yu and Wuxi Lingshan Foundation launched the "sister campaign reassurance action" public raising. As of February 20, they had collected and coordinated donations of materials to front-line women's medical care: 338317 comfort pants, 202209 disposable underwear, 2880 sanitary napkins, 700 hand cream, covering 79 hospitals and medical teams, and more than 60000 people.
In fact, in this world, there are many women who are faced with physiological difficulties. Their "routine" is like our "epidemic period".
How do global public welfare organizations relate to "menstrual poverty"
"Menstrual humiliation" struggle?
Wen Zhongnan house research team (Zhang Yudan, Huang Hongxiang, etc.)
Do you know what is "menstrual poverty" and "menstrual shame"?
Menstrual poverty refers to: restricted by backward concepts, menstrual taxes, poverty and other factors, women cannot obtain basic materials for physiological hygiene management (or "mhm") in physiological period.
Period shame / stigma refers to the idea that menstruation, a normal physiological phenomenon of women, is regarded as something shameful and unclean.
And "menstrual tax" refers to the value-added tax or business tax included in the sales price of tampons and other female physiological products. In many countries in the world, women's physiological products do not enjoy the same low tax rate as other basic necessities.
Although it is 2020, in many developed countries, many women still face menstrual poverty and stigma. This is more common in the vast developing world.
Of course, women have not stopped fighting with NGO workers and social innovators who help them. They have also achieved proud results.
▲ poster of the University of Pennsylvania
01
Nepal: overthrowing menstrual cottage
If you go to the central and western regions of Nepal, you may also see such small sheds: they are made of soil, stone, straw and wood, with an area of only about two square meters, no windows, doors and locks, very narrow, dark and crowded, only cold and dirty floors.
It's not a henhouse, it's a "menstrual cottage.".
The women's foundation Nepal
The existence of "menstrual cottage" is due to the custom of "chhaupadi" - women must be isolated from their families when they are in physiological period and live in "menstrual cottage"; they are not allowed to touch others; they are not allowed to eat milk, yoghurt, butter and meat; they are not allowed to share the same water source with other people in the village
▲ picture source of Nepalese women living in "menstrual cottage" during physiological period: Pacific Standard
You may think that this strange custom has something to do with religion, especially Hinduism, which has a high status in Nepal.
In ancient Indian mythology, menstruation was regarded as the product of Indra's spreading curse.
Women in their physiological period are considered "impure": if they drink milk, the cow will be sick and unable to produce milk; if they touch the fruit, the fruit will fall off before it matures; if these women accidentally meet someone, he will be sick
Indra, the God of ancient India: Zhihu column
"If someone is ill, it's my fault; if a cow is killed by a tiger, it's my fault. For some time, I felt like I was living in hell. "
——Ganga kunwar, a Nepalese woman
There are many health and safety risks in this custom - "menstrual cottage" is usually built in a very simple way, without heating and air conditioning, but if you want to make a fire in winter, there is a risk of poisoning and suffocation; isolation from your family and society may lead to depression, self-esteem damage and other psychological problems; in addition, women living here may suffer from animal attacks or sexual assault. Women living in the "menstrual cottage" suffer from physical and mental suffering.
A report on February 3, 2019 said that a Nepalese woman died of suffocation in her "menstrual cabin"; just a few weeks before the accident, another woman and her two children died of similar causes. Source: the independent
In 2005, the Supreme Court of Nepal issued a law banning "chhaupadi"; in 2017, Nepal further criminalized it - anyone who forced menstrual women into the "menstrual cottage" will face up to three months' imprisonment and a fine equivalent to about 200 yuan; in December 2019, the first case of such arrest investigation triggered heated discussion.
▲ Parwati budha Rawat, 21, was found dead in the "menstrual cabin", the third (at least) accident related to "chhaupadi" in 2019. Later, the husband's brother was arrested. Source: the guardian
In order to help "overthrow the menstrual hut", NGO ActionAid has been working in western Nepal for more than ten years. They organized women to discuss the impact of "chhaupadi" on life and its illegality, and encouraged them to seek solutions together. In the past five years, ActionAid and local partners have helped build at least 11 communities without "chhaupadi.".
▲ source: ActionAid official website
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(during the physiological period) I have to sleep under (goat shed). When the goat pees, it will pee on me, which makes me feel very bad This prompted me to object to "chhaupadi.".
——Gauri, 26
Tell ActionAid what she thinks
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02
India: invention of cost-effective sanitary napkin manufacturing machine
In India, "menstrual poverty" and "menstrual stigma" are the same problems. The 2018 film, pad man (also translated as pad man), tells the story of an Indian social innovator working hard for it. The true version of the story may be more moving than the movie.
▲ photo source of the film "Indian partner": the economic times
By 2011, only 12% of 355 million women of appropriate age in India could use sanitary napkins. Nearly 90% of women can't use sanitary napkins and can't afford this luxury.
The wife of social activist arunacharam murugannantum was one of them.
Shocked by the fact that many women, including his wife, have used rags or newspapers to solve the problem of physiological bleeding, he is determined to reverse this dilemma and create more cheap and easy-to-use sanitary napkins.
Photo source of murugannantum and his wife: India China Economic and Cultural Promotion Association
There must be many difficulties in challenging the tradition. At the beginning, murugannantum was not informed of the effective raw materials for making sanitary napkins, but also hindered by many obstacles from family and community.
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The community thinks I'm a pervert. They want to exorcise because they think I'm possessed by the devil.
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In some areas, it is believed that girls will never marry if they are smelled by dogs using a sanitary napkin. The villagers in one of the villages we work in believe that if the women of the physiological period go out after sunset, they will be blind.
After many years of persistence, he finally developed a low-cost sanitary napkin production equipment, reducing the price of a single sanitary napkin to about half of the market price in the past, about two corners of RMB (data reported by BBC in 2014).
▲ murugannantum guides Indian women how to use the sanitary napkin making machine he invented source: bbcnews
On February 2, 2018, he launched a "sanitary napkin challenge" on twitter, hoping that people can show their own appearance of holding sanitary napkins openly to support women who are still suffering from "shame" during menstruation.
▲ Amir Khan, the protagonist of "three silly people in Bollywood", also responded to the online publicity. Source: Zhihu
In India, many NGOs are committed to this. Through its "not just a piece of cloth" initiative, goonj, a local NGO, has distributed more than 5 million cloth pads across India. (Anshu Gupta, the founder of goonj, is known as "closing man", which is a nickname for everyone?)
▲ goonj holds lectures on physiological period knowledge in backward communities in India source: goonj official website
03
Africa: promoting the moon cup
In sub Saharan Africa, women in resource poor areas use old clothes, paper, cotton or wool chips, and even leaves to deal with menstrual bleeding. For those who have the ability to afford and access to adequate supplies, the disposal of discarded supplies remains a challenge.
In Africa, some countries have abolished VAT on physiological products. Kenya is a global pioneer in this area, and the "menstrual tax" was abolished in 2004.
However, Victoria feyikemi, head of the African Development and Empowerment Foundation, once said: "it is a good deed to abolish the value-added tax on physiological products, but it will not reduce its price to the extent that everyone can afford it without the support of the government or donors."
So what else can be done?
In Africa, many local NGOs are distributing free physiological products, including the mentor Missy project in Nigeria, day for girls in Ghana, Zana Africa in Kenya, etc.
Ibukun babarinde, founder of mentor Missy, is right: "organizations that distribute free physiological products will always need more money and donations; once the funding chain breaks, the project will no longer exist."
In the long run, physiological products must become available resources in the sense of commodities.
▲ logo source of mentor Missy: Twitter @ metormissy
"Recycling" is also one of the solutions. The Mina foundation is dedicated to spreading physiological knowledge to women and promoting the use of moon cup.
Little knowledge
The moon cup is usually made of silica gel, latex or thermoplastic. It is a physiological product that can be placed in the vagina like a tampon. It is soft and elastic. Generally, it is bell shaped, with short handle (or ring-shaped or spherical handle) at the bottom. The bell shaped part collects the blood flowing from the uterus to the vagina, and the short handle keeps the balance of the moon cup in the vagina, which is also convenient for the user to take out.
▲ Mina staff are explaining the source of female physiological knowledge: https://minacup.org/media/
The moon cup distributed by Mina can be used for up to 12 hours at a time, which is more convenient for menstrual management than regular replacement of tampons or sanitary napkins. In addition, the life span of a moon cup is 5 years, which greatly reduces the cost of women or NGOs. And the moon cup is made of 100% silica gel, soft and elastic, easy to put in, and more environmentally friendly than traditional products. (Note: the data shown here are all from the official website of Mina, and the relevant parameters of different moon cups are also different.)
▲ map source of moon cup promoted by Mina foundation to young girls: https://minacup.org/media/
However, although moon cup and other recyclable products have many advantages in solving the problem of "menstrual poverty", the disadvantages still exist: women or NGOs invest more in buying moon cup at one time; for those located in