Menstruation: a physiological and biological issue of womxnhood. It is not just today’s time when we have been up with the idea of calling this extremely natural process ‘impure’, it has been a concept with long years of journey.
So, let’s go a few hundred years back from today, when sanitary facilities for menstruation were negligibly good. At that time, it was difficult for womxn to manage their menstruation along with household chores. Hence, seeing all such problems with sanitary management, a system was started where women were freed from their daily domestic chores. She was asked to separate from the rest of the family so that she could discover herself, find her interests and manage her mood swings as well.
The concept of ‘not entering kitchens’ was not at all discriminatory. It was a concept started with the great vision of making women free from their domestic work.
All the work they were restricted to do were not considered restrictions in those days. It was a way to let her relax. But, as time passed, this right and bright concept got moulded into something called a ‘taboo’. It took a discriminatory shape and the biggest irony and misfortune is that most people involved in this discrimination are women itself.
Just imagine if the biological process itself is impure, then how can we people, who are born out of it, can be pure?