Until a few years before, the word " PERIODS" or " MENSES" used to evoke a lot of shame among the adolescents and adults as well. Looking back through the centuries India has lived through, atleast from the glimpse of what the scriptures and preserved texts say, a woman who is menstruating has been looked down upon as a contaminant. It grips my heart to just think what a lot of suffering she should have undergone and the extent to which she was taken for granted.
1. Menstruation is a normal part of the woman's cycle.
Even now, if any religious ritual happens in the household, the menstruating woman is deemed unfit to enter the household. I wonder if religious rituals are all against nature.
2. A woman sheds a lot of blood. So there is evilness around her.
I would like to ask the elders who would go on proclaiming this, whether" They would leave a sick man in their household who is bleeding from his rectum or vomiting blood separated from the household.?"
Evil is not in the pitiable menstruating woman but in the minds of those who discriminate against the feminine trait of menstruation.
3. She is unclean.
Whoa! Whoa! Wait please!
Those days were days when soap and sanitary napkins were not available.
4. She might be too tired to do the household work. SO we are saving her from the husband's demands.
Probably those day's husbands were too ignorant of the female anatomy and physiology and humanitarian concerns. And sex education and better communication between the couples has improved their knowledge and they are more considerate in sharing the work .
5. A bad odour emanates from her.
Again, napkins and soaps.
6. We are Orthodox! We don't want her to spoil the religious sanctity.
HELL !!! That's nothing but a really ugly projection of your idea on what is considered " GOD". YOU GET A BIGGGGGG ZERO IN SPIRITUALITY. Spend the rest of your days with your "so called Gods" in the forms of idols and chants. You have not even started the journey on spirituality.
7. She should not be menstruating during her marriage.
Probably she shouldn't even attend any of her nature's call on her marriage. All those are wastes too. A lot of women go around asking the doctors what tablet should they consume to postpone the periods fearing they would get their periods on the day of religious ritual or visit to temple. It just disturbs her naturally smooth cycle and creates problems otherwise she wouldn't have incurred. Who cares ! :(
8. She shouldn't visit a temple that time.
Ladies!! Temples are symbols of art, architecture and unison of man with nature. If nature's entity is not supposed to enter a temple when she is incurring a natural phenomenon, I wonder what Godliness is there inside.
Again a big question to ask yourself, for people who say the same old ignorant dialogue " EVERYTHING HAS BEEN KEPT FOR SOME REASON"
People nowadays are intelligent and women are too. Everything that is said blindly can no longer be accepted. Question yourself on how you came to a conclusion. Just because your mother said Because your mother's mother said and so on! Time to wake up to acknowledge the ignorance!
Age doesn't define maturity! Anything we enforce on others due to the advantage of being elderly can never work if not backed by good logic! I am sorry if hurt a few egos there but I should.
LEAVE THE UNWANTED OLD STUFF BEHIND! QUESTION EVERYTHING! We can always UNLEARN and RE- LEARN, only if we drop our EGOS.
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