This morning, I saw a Facebook post from a person whom I respect a lot. He said that he is taking a vow to not go to any religious place which does not allow women to enter, under any circumstances. The background story for this is there are Hindu temples in India which do not let menstruating women in the religious place as they are considered "impure" and "unclean". Growing up in India, I am not new to these ideas. My aunt told me to hurry up in taking my sanitary napkin out of my bag otherwise my (boy) cousin would come in and see it. There was a girl who asked me if it is ok to do the religious offering of Goddess Saraswati while menstruating. I told her that as Saraswati is a woman, she should understand what girls have to go through. When in school a girl would not feel fine during her periods, she would often lie and say she is having a headache or has an upset stomach instead of saying the truth. Personally, I consider an upset stomach to me much worse and a lot more gross than bleeding a little. Very recently, one of my coworkers wanted a sanitary napkin from me and when I handed it over to her, she shrieked and said I shouldn't have given it to her like that. It would be modest to hand it to her on the sly.
That is what I don't understand. What is the reason to be ashamed of a healthy, fully functioning female body? The fact that you are menstruating proves that you are capable of bringing another life to this world and that is very empowering.
Looking here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_taboo, I found that most religions consider women "unclean" when she is doing the healthy thing of shedding her uterus lining. I understand that most of these religious mandates were written long back when people didn't have a lot of idea about biology. But after thousands of years we still hold on to those with our blind faith and discriminate against women.
Coming back to the point of this guy on Facebook. His post was attacked by innumerable Indian men claiming that there are "scientific reasons" why women are not allowed inside temples. Some claimed that you should not make a religious place impure by your menstruation blood, some others defended the fact that everything Hinduism says (though Hinduism hardly ever documented any sayings, because it is a philosophy and not a religion) is based on science and to contradict that you must be disrespectful to your roots. I was shocked to see even women defending these. They are so much brainwashed that they would rather discriminate against themselves than use their minds. I wonder how men like these ill treat the women in their lives. When I commented and told these men to use logic, the defended themselves by calling me a "slave of the West" and wondering why my parents did not counsel me before I became so much Westernized. They equate talking about science as westernization. They said that one particular temple is of Shani Devata (deified idol of Saturn) and that god is not good for women. Some said that the god prefers acts of celibacy, so women should not enter. Some sane person asked how they know of the particular likes and dislikes of this god and if Shani Devata had ever descended on Earth to speak to these people. Some others asked if the god is not so sure that he would be able to maintain his celibate life after women enter the premises. These misogynists would not stop though. They confuse tradition with blind faith. Science has never said that women need to take a back seat, especially a healthy person. Also, if your faith stops you from questioning, then that itself would be a big red flag for me. There is no wonder why women are still being treated as second class citizens. Especially in a country like India, on one hand we deify women as goddesses and then at home abuse the wives and abort the female fetus. Centuries back people from the Bengal Renaissance tried to empower women through education and changes in society, but there are still so much to work on. Who would take that Herculean task up?
That is what I don't understand. What is the reason to be ashamed of a healthy, fully functioning female body? The fact that you are menstruating proves that you are capable of bringing another life to this world and that is very empowering.
Looking here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_taboo, I found that most religions consider women "unclean" when she is doing the healthy thing of shedding her uterus lining. I understand that most of these religious mandates were written long back when people didn't have a lot of idea about biology. But after thousands of years we still hold on to those with our blind faith and discriminate against women.
Coming back to the point of this guy on Facebook. His post was attacked by innumerable Indian men claiming that there are "scientific reasons" why women are not allowed inside temples. Some claimed that you should not make a religious place impure by your menstruation blood, some others defended the fact that everything Hinduism says (though Hinduism hardly ever documented any sayings, because it is a philosophy and not a religion) is based on science and to contradict that you must be disrespectful to your roots. I was shocked to see even women defending these. They are so much brainwashed that they would rather discriminate against themselves than use their minds. I wonder how men like these ill treat the women in their lives. When I commented and told these men to use logic, the defended themselves by calling me a "slave of the West" and wondering why my parents did not counsel me before I became so much Westernized. They equate talking about science as westernization. They said that one particular temple is of Shani Devata (deified idol of Saturn) and that god is not good for women. Some said that the god prefers acts of celibacy, so women should not enter. Some sane person asked how they know of the particular likes and dislikes of this god and if Shani Devata had ever descended on Earth to speak to these people. Some others asked if the god is not so sure that he would be able to maintain his celibate life after women enter the premises. These misogynists would not stop though. They confuse tradition with blind faith. Science has never said that women need to take a back seat, especially a healthy person. Also, if your faith stops you from questioning, then that itself would be a big red flag for me. There is no wonder why women are still being treated as second class citizens. Especially in a country like India, on one hand we deify women as goddesses and then at home abuse the wives and abort the female fetus. Centuries back people from the Bengal Renaissance tried to empower women through education and changes in society, but there are still so much to work on. Who would take that Herculean task up?
3 comments:
Kudos to you for writing this. Science has failed for most in world, they simply cannot bring themselves to accept that it is actually a search for facts that stand up to rationality. And there is this tendency to establish that most acts condoned by religion is 'based on science'. Oh come on. E.g. Conch shells kill germs? why not blow conch shells which every Hindu household has to improve this statistic - "India has the maximum child death in the world before the age of 5". Most people I know - and that includes very successful and formally educated people, harbor absolutely stupid prejudices and hang ups in the name of almost everything they feel personally about. It is really a 'Demon Hunted World'. Sad.
Great article. i have really run out of patience about these and stopped arguing with people about the stupidities.
on a lighter note - i remember that i offered saraswati pujo anjali before madhyamik while i was menstruating (just to check - "something bad will happen"). my result shows may be the goddess was really happy about the decision.. :D :D
Shaitan, khyakzzzz!!!
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