The girls and women we serve just want basic human rights. They have been subverted, ignored, and manipulated by thousands of years of male dominance to believe that not having sanitary pads is acceptable.
When a woman has to hide and fear her period each month, her dignity, effectiveness, and her identity are shamed. This shame is a tool that tells her she is ‘less than’. It is a monthly reminder of who is in charge.
Like the sexually harassed and abused women in U.S. workplaces, these women have been scorched of their dignity, diminished in their worth, and railroaded from their education and careers. There need not be physical aggression. The result is the same. We are talking about institutionalized misogyny that pays women less, keeps them from power, and relegates them to use leaves and dirt to manage their menstrual flow.
And it’s got nothing to do with sex, it’s all about male dominance and voluntary ignorance. It’s politically, economically, and fear-driven. How interesting that sex is not talked about in many parts of the world. You can’t talk about child marriage, birth control, genital cutting, and sanitary pads when you can’t talk about sex!
It’s just a PAD, a scrap of cotton! What’s to be afraid of????
Resources below provided by: girleffect.org
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