Menstruation and Dignity

The previous posts mentioned the barriers that women faced when it comes to water access and one of them is health. For women an important use of water is for menstrual health, however in Africa, “Period Poverty” ie. when women lacks

access to menstrual products and hygiene and water facilities to treat their menstruation is a widespread issue (Tull, 2019). Before heading straight into this topic, I am going to share a story I came across which recounts Mary, a 18 year old girl’s experience dealing with menstruation in Kangundo, Kenya.  

“[Mary’s home has] an outdoor bathroom and toilet. Since they do not have running water, they use basin water and soap to take a bath. During her periods, she experiences a lot of pain in her lower back and abdomen, and she is not able to work. The boys in her area do not know much about menstruation, and although Mary has a boyfriend, he lives in Nairobi and they do not discuss menstruation.” (FSG, 2016)

Mary’s story highlights the cultural perceptions of menstruation as a taboo in Kenya (and across many regions in Africa). Menstruation stigmatizes girls and women as being unclean and polluted removing them of their dignity, limiting their mobility to maintain personal hygiene and taking part economically productive activities, such as farming. In Masai, there is a fear for girls and women on their menstruation of contaminating animals. (Ryley, 2014) For many girls like Mary, the topic of menstruation is also rarely discussed, due to the fears of being teased and ridiculed, especially at schools. This stigmatized subject further creates many problems for girls and women in Africa owing to little to no public education on the topic and the lack of running water and involvement in the design & management of toilets in schools and on a community level. Often girls find toilets with broken locks, no disposal and cleaning facilities.

Role of schools and menstruation

Menstruation alone leads to high levels of absenteeism of girls in schools. From the lack of running water to clean stains for the fear of leakage; sanitation bins; cubicles for privacy and soap, they face social exclusion and emotional distress during their menstrual cycle. So forth, approximately 1 in 10 girls in Sub-Saharan Africa miss school because of their periods (Rueckert, 2018).

A toilet facility at Milton Dalasile SSS School in Africa (LRC, 2013)

Also there is a lack of support from teachers towards the sensitive topic of menstruation, and their involvement should be at the core of improving Menstrual Health Management. Most often girls do not understand what is happening to their own bodies and thinking they hurt themselves when experiencing menstruation. Both genders should be educated on what is happening to their body for improving management of their periods and breaking the taboo with menstruation.

Lacking affordability in sanitary products

Aside from the lack of infrastructure in facilitating females in dealing with their menstruation, affordability is another concerning factor. While over 80% of women cannot afford sanitary products as a result of the high prices of disposable pads which could be equivalent to a day’s salary in Malawi (Matata,2015) girls and women do not have control and access over money in their household spending. This is again due to the patriarchal society in Africa, astonishing figures reveal that 2 out of 3 females rely on their sexual partners and transactional sex in the provision of sanitary pads or even soap to wash up after their period (FSG, 2016). Transactional sex for sanitary pads puts girls and women at risks of subjects to violence and also HIV.

The inaccessibility of sanitary pads leads to the use of ad hoc alternatives, such as scraps of cotton, leaves and even mattress stuffing.

Muhonja, a user of ad hoc alternatives: “They burn, they sting, they irritate my skin, and they leak and soil my clothes.” (Higgins,2017)

Subjects to violence

For girls and women especially, without a proper space to manage their periods, they have to walk long distances or wait until dark for private space which increases their susceptibility of being victims of violence and sexual assault, where in South Africa alone 40, 000 rapes were reported annually.

Design of sanitation facilities, a male dominated field

Based on interviews with girls in Uganda from a report on “Menstrual Hygiene Management in Resource-Poor Countries”, they emphasized on the needs for functioning locks on toilet doors, lighting to easily identify leaks and the provision of water supply in the lavatory along with soap (Kuhlmann, 2017) for a female friendly toilet. While these requirements are self-explanatory to females like myself, these requirements are not as obvious to men. Although women are responsible for sanitation and water at a household level in ensuring there is sufficient water for sanitation and cleaning, when it comes to the design and management of public latrines in Africa, it is a male dominant sector eg. engineers, construction work and technicians are predominately male. This leads to gender specific problems in the location and design of latrines that are rarely addressed.

Cleaning toilets are women's responsibilities (Masgon, 2019)

In the East and Southern Africa Menstrual and Hygiene management symposium in Johannesburg 2018, attendance to the Water and Hygiene Sanitation (WASH) session was also disappointing in comparison to more popular sessions, such as finance and education (Khaweka, 2018).

Girls and women experience menstruation for over 30 years in their life-time and the cultural norms with femininity restricts them from accessing clean and water and their involvement in the design and management of toilets and sanitation facilities on a community and national level. This leading to gender specific issues with sanitation facilities and most importantly as a restriction from self-development. So forth water and sanitation facilities should be a top priority in public policy making and women should be placed in the centre of menstrual hygiene management. Ensuring sanitation for menstruation instills self-dignity for females in maintaining personal hygiene and empowers them to take part in education and economically productive activities. Stay tuned for the next post in which I will explore the approaches of gender mainstreaming in sanitation with particular reference to menstruation.