Untouchables for five days a month: Why our Gods are angry with women’s period blood?
Well, to start with celebrating menstruation, here’s a picture of two women dancing and menstruating. An age-old rock painting found in Western Australia.
In this article, I share one of the personal accounts of a story that was shared to me by a close middle-aged friend about her first menses experience. What I find about this is that it’s not a unique but shared experience of many young women from rural India. This one particular story is from the mountain Himalayan state. Here the Periods are locally called ‘Chuth’ and the women must isolate herself from others including she is barred from entering premises of kitchen and religious places. If by mistake she comes in physical contact with another person, this person is considered unpure and must be sprinkled with ‘Gaumutra or Gaut’. This also includes her children who sleep with their mother at night and must be sprinkled every morning. Though this practice has significantly come to an end with this generation, it existed for a major part of my childhood.
Following is the account in her own words -
“I still remember my first periods. I was beaten up by my mother and why wouldn’t she beat me up, I did something which deserved that. When I had my first period, I thought I had got a disease and went on to cry and shout to everyone in the family about it. That look I’m bleeding. And then started the thrashing and confused in my agony I wondered why mother would beat me up when I needed help. And that was it I was told to wear a cloth piece every month while my sisters laughed. And it was only time that taught me about the nature of my own body”.
This is not the end, what follows is a monthly subscription of the ill practice of untouchability for at least five days. As a psychologist I sometimes wonder the effect of this malpractice on the concept of a women’s self-identity, it is these practices which ultimately let them identify themselves as the second and inferior sex.
The scientist by all methods of medicine and anthropology must have proved the superiority of male’s body over females with respect to physical strength but what they vehemently ignore is the effect of socio-cultural variable of these practices whose influences are entirely psychological in nature.
I’m glad that with time, each generation is unfollowing these practices particularly the isolation of women which has been possible due to the changing dynamics of family structure from joint to nuclear family. But the practice of banning from praying, which is believed to make the Gods angry with the impurity of women during these days is still followed not just by the family but the women themselves who seem to have internalised this. It was one such encounter of a similar incident which motivated me to write this article.
Yes, Women bleed every month, it's natural, some even face the disgust of their husband and family members: but what is that we do to make The Gods angry?
My rational mind had the only possible following answers — is it because mostly our Gods are male? or because it's mostly men who have since time immemorial proclaimed the authority of religion.
A well-known sociologist Durkheim has stated that “human religion in its entirety emerged originally in connection with menstruation”. His argument seems to be indeed standing correct with the central position of these taboo against women’s period in the major world’s religion (Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Jainism). The practice which presents itself in various avatars of undignified behaviour against women: untouchability for five days, restriction from praying, entry to a religious institution and other similar. The logic of this irrational practice could be even seen defined under the umbrella of science stating it is for the own sake of women’s health, her husband ( this one particular, where it states that periods lead to decrease in libido (desire) and temporary impotency due to smell of menstrual material, yes again blame it on her) bla bla. Well, id says let her decide for her own body.
