Period Poverty: how can youth be the key to breaking taboo surrounding menstruation and enact change?

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Tafiya Erum Kamran, a 21-year-old medical student, who is currently studying at Shifa college of Medicine Islamabad, Pakistan. She is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writers and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Grace meng said, “menstrual equity is not a choice or a luxury, it is a human right and a health right”. Period poverty to put simply is the inability to afford menstrual hygiene products, facilities and education. This issue is not just of the developing world but even in developed countries like the US about 500 million people lack access to basic period products. It`s a worldwide issue and no one is talking about it, because of the apparent stigma attached to it. God-forbid we talk about one of the most basic physiological mechanisms of a body with a uterus.

The fact that we don`t talk about it, is an issue in itself, most of the non-menstruators don`t even know what a period is, but even more baffling is the fact that even girls don`t know what puberty entails, according to a UNICEF report of 2017, about 49% of girls in Pakistan didn`t know what a period was until they hit menarche. Asking someone to buy them pads is a battle in itself because it feels gross and shameful, which it isn`t but that`s how women are made to feel about it. In a world where non-menstruators don`t understand the enormity of the need associated with menstrual products, they are deemed unnecessary.

In a country like Pakistan, where according to the finance department about 55 million people are below the poverty line, do you think that period products are seen as vital? Periods don`t stop for pandemics or for natural disasters, they don`t wait for the next paycheck or stop to see if the other person can afford said products or have access to basic necessities of life. Menstruators have to turn towards unlikely makeshift products to keep them from bleeding all over or skip school or work and end up in a more cumbersome position than before. It`s not healthy, it`s not safe and it`s certainly not okay.

Period products should be readily available to all the people who need it at an affordable price or even better free of cost. This cannot happen unless and until we have conversations associated with menstruation without isolating menstruators from non-menstruators because this is not just a woman problem or a uterus problem, it is a global problem that needs to be dealt in a global manner. We can initiate the conversation by educating our youth.

We can elicit empathy in their minds and the minds of other non-menstruators for menstruators, let them know what their mothers, sisters, wives and female peers go through every single month and how many of them don`t even have access to the products that they need during these days. They can make the society, work and educational institutes safer and more inclusive for having a period. The youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow and they can broach a conversation that can lead to better policies relating to menstruation, a better time where the talk of basic human need isn`t only limited to food, shelter and water but also includes period products. 

About the author

Tafiya Erum Kamran is a 21-year-old medical student, who is currently studying at Shifa college of Medicine Islamabad, Pakistan. She has a love for reading and writing that was instilled in her from a very young age. She`s very passionate about women rights and considers herself to be a feminist. She does some poetry in her free time and loves to watch dystopian series. Studying medicine and helping people has been her passion for as long as she could remember and she hopes that she can turn out to be a fruitful existence in the world.