Today we want to talk about an amazing documentary that debuted on Netflix recently. ?Absorb the taboo that speaks of the customs, stereotypes, stigma and taboos that still surround women’s lives in India today.
This time, the question revolves around a taboo that many people and movements fight against: we talk about female menstruation. Something that is seen in the West in an absolutely normal way ends up being one of the main obstacles for women in India, so that we find it inconceivable.
- Something as fundamental as female nature has been hidden and demonized for centuries.
- The good news is that a group of women in India has found a way to be in the world and move on thinking about something as intrinsically feminine as menstruation.
The documentary was recorded in a rural area of Hapur, India, near Delhi. To be sure, India’s women’s revolution is already underway, but in rural areas, outdated ideas remain based on traditions that make women slaves to a cruel past. condemn women to domestic violence, forced child marriages, dropout and the role of the mother without any other possibility.
Not long ago, however, women in a small Hapur community began a silent revolution against the stigma most deeply rooted in their culture. Menstruation in Indian culture is a taboo for both men and women, and now women themselves have decided to lay new foundations. for an awakening.
Sanitary towels have recently been added to the Indian market, yet they can only be found in shops in big cities, making sanitary towels virtually inaccessible to most women, also for their high price. an old abandoned house in Hapur in a factory where a large group of women of all ages make their own towels, which are also sold in all shops.
In this way, they created a way to solve a problem that, in many cases, was even an obstacle to achieving personal goals, these women have created a cooperative with which they can obtain an economic return for their work, for many of them. them for the first time in their lives.
The first, and probably most serious, problem with the stigmatization of menstruation in women in India is that there is still a habit of dropping out of school with the onset of the first menstruation.
In fact, it is an ancient tradition that marks the moment when the woman begins her fertility period, so they have to give up everything else to dedicate themselves to the marriage of their children. In India, menstruation is still seen as a source of shame and shame, which prevents women from entering temples of prayer because of their “unclean state. “This occurs even in temples that consecrate female deities. This is the level of the absurdity of stigma.
Although many women in India have already begun to find a way in their education to combat forced and premature marriages, many others are forced to drop out of school due to the emergence of the rules. They do not have suitable places to change and use pieces of cloth that are buried after use, which they cannot do at school comfortably and safely.
It was in the city of Los Angeles that the Pad project was first realized, a non-profit organization that raised the necessary funds for the first 99% biodegradable absorbent manufacturing machine put into service by the women of the Hapur cooperative.
The empowerment this has generated for these women was due not only to the new way of seeing menstruation, but also to the new possibility of economic gains for themselves and their families. The side effects are also noteworthy: they have earned the respect of men in the community and have been able to afford the education of younger girls.
Its absorbing brand is called Fly, a name you chose for its symbolism, because the ultimate goal of your project and your work was?And is it allowing Indian women to finally spread their own wings to fly?
The stigma of menstruation in India has a lot of ignorance and ignorance. The documentary shows young people in Hapur who don’t know what menstruation is. Some people think it’s a disease that attacks women more than men.
For many men in the field, this project also involved the power to undo their ignorance of the female nature, and managed to bring the two worlds closer: women’s and men’s. to completely eliminate the stigma surrounding female menstruation over time.
It is amazing to see how such a simple and accessible project is capable of illuminating a subject and generating a peaceful and hopeful revolution, fighting against ignorance and stereotypes maintained for centuries.