Dignified Menstruation for Climate Justice: Why? How?
Menstrual discrimination is any kind of taboo, shame, discrimination,
restriction, violence, or deprivation of access to means and resources. There
are various names, forms, and seriousness of direct or indirect, and less or
more discrimination everywhere in the world, though menstrual practices are
affected by geographical, economic, political, social, cultural, and
technological factors. Researchers have found more than 5,000 names for
menstruation worldwide. This is not the question of only 5 days but of the
whole life cycle, as menstrual discrimination establishes cyclical
socialization by constructing power and patriarchy between 6 and 9 years of
age. As this creates socialization by constructing power and patriarchy, there
is no moment that doesn’t affect menstruators and non-menstruators. Actually,
this constructs all kinds of gender norms, like how to walk, who walks, what to
wear, what to read, who reads, where to read, and why to read. Now, here, it's
too late to understand that gender inequality is constructed because
menstruation is exercised as discrimination rather than vice versa. The
intention of this article is that, as much as menstruation is natural, gender
is not. Or if it were called ‘menstruation’ in place of ‘gender’, our
inclusivity would have been simple and vigorous. May be we have been facing so
many backlashes as we have not been celebrating or keeping behind the natural
phenomenon of menstruation but by advocating gender equality. Under whatever
pretext we do, according to the UN definition of sexual and gender violence,
menstrual discrimination practice is, not only once but dozens of times, sexual
and gender violence. If it is interpreted on the basis of the definition of
human rights, it is a multiple violation of human rights. The discrimination or
violence at menstruation and menopause is a symptomatic effect of menstrual
discrimination, whereas the violence or discrimination faced at every step of
life and throughout the life cycle by menstruators born with uteri is a
structural and systemic effect.
Superficially, menstruation and climate change are natural. Artificially, or
in the society we are living in, menstruation is tagged with discrimination,
and competitive industrialisation has accelerated climate change. Climate
change doubled by day and became four-fold by night (became as intense as day
and night) and started to impact the entire world. The chasm between
menstruators and non-menstruators is expanding because of menstrual
discrimination’s trap in the quagmire of silence and ignorance. The gender
inequality problem became complicated while trying to address it through other
means rather than by addressing the first and foremost cause, menstrual
discrimination. It’s not that there are no campaigns, policies, or programs to
address, but their impacts are not sustainable and all-encompassing as expected
and invested.
Now, let’s discuss a byline news story from Surkhet titled ‘Mahinawarima
Kuwapani Nishedh (Drinking Water Well is also Prohibited during
Menstruation)’ by Lalit Bahadur Budha, published in the Appanpurna Post on 1
Chaitra 2080. The wells in the village started to dry up within the last 6
or 7 years. It was a compulsion to walk for about an hour and a half to fetch
water for themselves and their cattle. They say that the well was dried up
because they didn’t follow menstrual restrictions. There’s a lot of bleeding
while carrying water from such a distance. There are many forms of
discrimination, even on such issues, which we can and should discuss in various
ways. Whichever perspective we use for discussion, the crux of the issue is
menstrual practice. The wells might have dried up due to deforestation, climate
change, or global warming. Though it seems symptomatic to blame the
menstruators for menstruation, this is the systemic repercussion of menstrual
discrimination. In such places, menstruation, menstruators, and their
activities are taken as impure and dirty. After the well dries up, women are
compelled to fetch water by walking a long distance. Such a practice is an act
of division of labor imposed upon the women with intention or custom due to the
deeply imbedded perception about the same blood, impure and unclean.
Menstruators should bathe if there is availability of water, if you have a
habit, and if you are comfortable. You need to cleanse during menstruation. But
even if you are unable to do so, forcing that you must do so because you are
menstruating is because menstrual blood is considered impure and dirty. Or, you
can just use materials to manage the blood and sexual organs because the
menstrual blood is pure and clean. If you don’t have a serious health problem
(which is just 5 percent chance), menstruators need not take it as a problem to
manage. Suppose, if you fall within 5 percent, non-menstruators can be
requested to help to manage. Why isn’t that happening? Even if it’s happening
during menstruation, this is the structural or systemic impact of menstrual
discrimination. The thought, perspective, and practice that
non-income-generating household work like managing water for cattle is again
structural and systemic effect. Not mentioned in the article but prevalent
everywhere is the practice of spending the water fetched by the menstruators
for non-menstruators’ beard shaving or bathing. Such practices are also the
effects of structural systems. If menstruators themselves choose to use
non-degradable plastic or chemically mixed products (for instance, found in the
Nepali market often, which takes 200 to 1000 years to degrade), such products
pollute land, jungle, and air and harm human beings, which is a symptomatic
effect. Not getting water or getting less water is the systemic effect; if the
management of blood cannot be done in the above-mentioned way, mental stress
caused by not getting it, undignified and low feelings, or any other health or
physical problems develop. It is a health and human rights problem caused by
water and climate change.
One aspect of climate justice advocacy is that climate change has increased
health problems, increased gender inequality, a lack of or reduced
participation of women in decision-making processes, and a nominal budget for
gender equality. This writer claims that, in the same vein, it will be yet
another blunder to conduct a program under the banner of climate change or
justice. Because our advocacy has not even thought to scale the mountain of
menstrual discrimination, the root constructor and creator of unequal power and
patriarchy. As experienced and thought by most people, sexual and reproductive
health, comprehensive sexual education, menstrual health, and management are
silent on the multifaceted and complex nature of menstrual discrimination and
the role it plays in creating unequal power and reinforcing patriarchy.
Therefore, in the research and advocacy of climate justice in any context, if
we can mainstream dignified menstruation (solution) or menstrual discrimination
(problem), it is possible to root out the structural discrimination. Otherwise,
a parrot can imitate for some days only; after some days, it either flies,
forgets, or awaits death. At the current pace, even if the budget is enough to
address the increasing health problems due to climate change, many women are
appointed, or the role of youth and tribal youths are increased, it will not
yield material results because there have not been any initiatives to shake the
foundation of unequal power relations and patriarchy, which are the prerequisites
for meaningful climate justice. Because even after a 76-year-long human
rights campaign to sustainable development goals, menstrual
discrimination has not been provided proper space. There is not a single place
in the world unaffected by climate change, and we cannot even imagine a place
without a minstruator; therefore, all who work on climate change don’t have any
alternatives to working in dignified menstruation.
Published in Kantipur National daily in Nepali and Translated by Puspa Regmi
