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A young woman from rural India asks a pertinent question - Isn't the goddess they worship a girl? Won't she get periods too? If she does, will they send her out of the temple?
A young woman from rural India asks a pertinent question – Isn’t the goddess they worship a girl? Won’t she get periods too? If she does, will they send her out of the temple?
Growing in a typical, old-fashioned Indian family from a rural part of South India, my mother had never spoken about what periods are, or how they will occur, or what is the impact of periods on my body, until the day I got my first period.
Since I knew nothing about periods, I didn’t even know what was happening to me, until my mother realised that I had got my first period. What my mom said following this will forever leave a scar.
She said “Oh god! I was the first one who saw you get your first period! It’s a bad omen for me, as a mother should never witness her daughter’s first period!”
There are all sorts of myths about periods and other things in the area I grew up in, but I was devastated on hearing my mom say this. We girls had never asked for periods and it’s not our fault if we get them.
Even now my mom blames me if I get my periods on a function day or the day we are supposed to go to a temple!
Why do people have to blame girls for getting her periods? Why are women not allowed inside a temple on period days? Who created these myths? Isn’t the goddess they worship a girl? Won’t she get periods too? If she does, will they send her out of the temple?
Why is a girl not allowed inside her own home when she is on periods? Why is a girl not allowed to touch things when on periods? Why she is not allowed to sleep on the bed?
These things are still happening in many parts of India.
Periods are a common, natural thing. It’s not a ‘sin’. Just because we have our periods doesn’t mean we have to be treated differently on those days. I wish these sort of things will change for the women and girls living in rural India so that they can relax during those days, because after all, periods are painful.
Image source: a still from the documentary film Period. End of a Sentence.
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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