Another day in Kenya, where being a woman and girl in this country stirs so many emotions of sadness and anger. If women are not being raped, sexually harassed or killed, they are being shamed for having their periods.
A 14-year-old girl from Bomet County got her period in school and as a result, she stained her school dress because she did not have any sanitary towels. The female class teacher who was meant to help the teenage girl during her time of need saw it fit to shame and punish the young girl in front of the other students and send her out of the class. This ordeal led the teenage girl to take her own life after school on 6th September 2019.
This narrative has so many issues in it, first, it brings to light the issue of access to sanitary towels for teenage girls who miss school during their time of the month; period stigmatisation, menstrual health and bullying of students by their class teachers and suicide among teenagers in the country.
Kenya has passed the Basic Education Amendment Act 2017, which commits “to provide free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels to every girl child registered and enrolled in a public basic education institution who has reached puberty and provide a safe and environmentally sound mechanism for disposal of sanitary towels.”
Yet, judging from the reaction by the girl's class teacher the school did not have sanitary towels to help the young girl or create a safe environment for her during her time of the month. This is what happens when menstruation is not normalised in our society.
I grew up knowing that I could not discuss menstruation with men or send a man to buy menstrual products and some of our local supermarkets wrap menstrual sanitary products in newspapers so that shoppers cannot know it is my time of the month.
Periods are a normal occurrence in women, it is not a disorder that should be shamed or called dirty because this kind of language makes it hard for girls to navigate through their daily activities of life such as school. Changing our outlook on how will look at periods could also help in making pads more accessible to girls.
All school teachers (male or female)should be well-equipped to handle young girls who start their periods. A school should ideally be a safe space for all students, meaning teachers should not at any time shame their students no matter the circumstance.
No women or girls should be shamed because of their period.
Let’s stop period shame!
My heart goes out to the girl's family.
