Those Three Days Of Every Woman’s Life

Taboos around periods are outdated, and should be relegated to history. A woman’s recounts her thoughts on these.

Being a seventies child, I had witnessed those times closely when monthly cycles used to be equivalent to mental and physical trauma in our society, as tradition was uppermost, and awareness about menstruation was limited.

I really never understood what the fuss was all about! After all, it was something natural.

I must say, I was one of those lucky ones where we had no separate rules for women and girls during those days.To be very honest even that time we (three sisters) never had any restrictions in our family for doing Puja or entering the kitchen. It was just like any day!

I knew about a few conservative families and for them, those three days were like a curfew for women. Women of those families were not allowed to go to temples or to worship at home. Entering the kitchen was another taboo. They were treated differently with a food served separately and sleeping in isolation, and apparently to maintain hygiene everything vessel that they used had to be washed again before being put away. Really, this sounds weird today, and nothing less than discrimination!

But for me, it was never a restriction of any sort and I will also make sure that my next generation will not carry this baggage forward. I have never barred myself from going to temple or cooking, or doing anything else I want to do.

But the scene is not yet completely changed. Some people still expect a woman to become an outcast for those 3-5 days. Why don’t they understand and walk with the time and with the positive changes around? Don’t they want a woman to come out of this medieval practice?

Women are now more confident and have freedom of choice. They are everywhere, in space, in an army, in navy and every day touching new heights of success. If a few people are still bent upon their old tradition of outcasting menstruating ladies then it is time to change.

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Image source: shutterstock

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