Corrected at 8:45pm, 16 Nov 2009
PARTI Keadilan Rakyat’s Seri Andalas assemplyperson, Dr Xavier Jayakumar, has unintentionally landed the Taman Sri Andalas mosque committee in hot soup. Xavier had given a talk in the mosque during a Ramadan function in late August 2009. According to the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais), this was a huge no-no. When contacted by Utusan Malaysia, Jais director Datuk Mohamed Khusrin Munawi said this was because non-Muslims fall in the same category as menstruating women, who are also not allowed in the mosque’s prayer hall.
Going by Jais’s status as an official Islamic enforcement body, this is certainly an authoritative statement, at least in Selangor. Khusrin’s statement must still be unpacked, though, and at many levels at that.
First of all, has it been a consensus among Islamic scholars through the ages that non-Muslims are equivalent to menstruating women? Is it a consensus that, therefore, menstruating women and non-Muslims are both barred from entering a mosque’s prayer hall, even if they are not performing prayers there?
A deeper and indeed more controversial question is, what’s the deal with menstruation? Specifically, menstruation taboos. Certainly it is not only Islam that has its share of menstruation taboos. Many Orthodox churches do not allow menstruating women to receive communion. Menstruating Catholics, for the longest time, could not serve during mass at the altar.
The Jewish Talmudic laws are even stricter: A woman is unclean not only during her menstrual cycle, but for an additional week after menstruation has ended. Not only is the woman unclean, she also defiles every surface she touches. She is not allowed to have sex with her husband, and if she does, Jewish law says she can be put to death.
In fact, the “dangers” of menstruation were also given a pseudo-scientific spin in the West. For example in 1878, the British Medical Journal claimed that a menstruating woman could cause bacon to putrefy.
Hysteria
Additionally, the word “hysteria” is derived from the Greek word “hystera”, meaning “womb” or uterus. The word was originally coined to link certain nervous disorders with diseases of the female reproductive organs. And so, conventional male-centred wisdom holds that only women become hysterical, not men.
Sometimes, this view plays itself out in strange and macabre ways. Take anthropologist Professor Aihwa Ong‘s research on “spirit possessions” among female Malay Malaysian factory workers in the 1980s. These were rural women employed mainly by Japanese electronics factories during the free trade zone boom in Peninsula Malaysia.
Under conditions of great workplace stress and trauma, cases of mass hysteria were reported in different factories. And all these attacks either affected or were caused by menstruating women. According to Ong, one worker reported: “Workers saw ‘things’ appear when they went to the toilet. Once, when a woman entered the toilet she saw a tall figure licking sanitary napkins…. It had a long tongue, and those sanitary pads…cannot be used anymore.”
Napkins
What a coincidence then that even in commercials advertising sanitary pads in Malaysia, the pads themselves are nowhere in sight. (Corrected) 3R co-host Rafidah Abdullah tells The Nut Graph, “When 3R first started out, we tried shooting a sanitary pad commercial with Kotex, without the pads appearing on air.” Apparently 3R‘s broadcasters — TV3 and Astro Ria — were terrified even then that the public would complain about the ads. Nobody complained, and other sanitary pad manufacturers were emboldened to advertise using this innovative strategy of promoting sanitary pads without actually showing the pads.
Is menstruation that terrifying? Is it really that offensive? It is, after all, a normal bodily function. It is part and parcel of being human for half of the human race.
Religious taboos aside, it is also astounding how the fact that women menstruate is used to ridicule women and even keep them from positions of power and responsibility. We only need look back to 2007, when two Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament (MP) — Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) and Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) — used menses as a way of discrediting DAP MP Fong Po Kuan‘s legitimate question about Parliament’s leaky roof.
It is this kind of treatment of menstruation in religious teachings, customs and the public sphere that demonstrates that a woman’s bodily functions are an easy way for sexist power structures to keep women second to men. Hence, far from being just a biological function, menstruation is political. Below are the newsroom’s attempts at understanding the bloody business of women’s periods. Give us yours in six words.
Deborah Loh:
Periods are God’s gift to women.
Politicians lacking facts politicise periods instead.
Equating non-Muslims to menstruating women: Huh!
Chauvinism hiding behind a sanitary pad.
Ding Jo-Ann:
“Period” can be said out loud.
Not something to be ashamed of.
Jacqueline Ann Surin:
So “dirty” yet even pontianak takut.
It’s a healthy bodily function lah!
Who’s afraid of a little blood?
What’s so dirty about life-sustaining blood?
Kalau haid, tak boleh pakai putih.
Kalau haid, maksudnya tak hamil. Yay!
Maybe some men have period envy?
Koh Jun Lin:
But the gynae said it’s good!
A built-in barometer of good health.
Is blood donation considered “dirty”, too?
Koh Lay Chin:
Bleeding naturally beats your wars’ bloodshed.
Our menstruation. Menyebabkan men tu eksyen.
Your mother didn’t get period meh?
Shanon Shah:
Nobody says idiotic men have periods.
Biology — no excuse to marginalise women.
Who’s afraid of normal bodily cycles?
If men menstruated — International Menstruation Treaties.
The Nut Graph follows True Blood.
Inspired by Ernest Hemingway‘s genius, the Six Words On… section challenges readers to give us their comments about a current issue, contemporary personality or significant event in just six words. The idea is to get readers engaged in an issue, while having fun and being creatively disciplined.
Read previous Six Words
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Andrew I says
Kotex ad: George Michael’s Freedom90 vid.
Nicholas Aw says
Menstruation taboo is a man-made belief.
Menstruation is a gauge for non-pregnancy.
bibliobibuli says
It’s a natural function politicised. Period.
If men menstruated – badge of machodom!
chrisoro says
They fear the power of menstruation.
Why the hating when God-given?
They only vilify what they fear.
J says
Tis’ primal, this fear of menses.
Tis’ the fear of change coming.
Refreshing the womb, the bringer of life.
A new season, a new beginning.
[…]
[…]
Karcy says
It stinks, but such is life.
Rafidah says
Malaysia tanah tumpahnya darahku. Darahmu mana?
pilocarpine says
Women menopause, but men no pause.
Sean says
Do they actually know any women?
I prefer the hysterons, bar them!
amir says
Pepatah lama: Better late than pregnant!
terri says
Controlled by narrow minds. Mercy God!
Jenn says
TNG, why forget Hinduism menstruation taboo?
Editor’s note: The remainder of the comment far exceeds the six-word limit, but we will publish it for the insight that it gives:
I felt the introductory treatment was a little bit unbalanced because you only took on the Judeo-Christian taboos in this. For me, the first time I heard a menstruation taboo was in going to a Hindu temple and being told women who have periods are banned from entering. And there are also some indigenous traditions where women have to go into seclusion during this cycle. Although, these should be evaluated within the context of the culture.
—–
Our six words in response:
Absence humbly acknowledged. Research needed. Thanks!
Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor
Hwa Shi-Hsia says
Turquoise: stupid colour for schoolgirls’ pinafores.
Birth control pills: bye bye periods!
(Even though periods are natural and I agree we shouldn’t be ashamed of them, it is undeniable that they are messy, inconvenient, and cause pain (cramps) to many. The original birth control pills and most still in use are designed with one “placebo” week per month because [then mostly male] gynaes and scientists thought that it was not only natural but necessary for women to menstruate. However, the uterine lining is living tissue and will not “rot” inside you by itself. Also, in ancient times most women did not have monthly periods for years at a time like we do for the simple reason that they were pregnant or breastfeeding most of the time, so clearly periods are not required for good health. Some newer brands of birth control pills are designed to give you only 4 periods per year, and the levonogestrel-releasing IUDs eliminate them completely for some women.)
Editor’s note: The brackets are unfair, Hwa Shi-Hsia, as a means of flouting the six-word rule! For public education (for now), we’ll allow this through, but what would be better is if you took the bracketed section and fashioned some new six-word entries out of them 🙂 You game for homework?
Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor
Justitia says
Menstruating means no baby, try again!
Andrew I says
A time of frustration for men.
Andrew I says
A period of frustration for men.
zids says
Why MENstruation when it is WOMEN?
Period in Malay is datang bulan.
Datang bulan – a very significant period.
Naoko says
Periods – releasing living tissues to nourish baby.
Ancient times – high pregnancy, few periods.
Birth control pills can cause cancer.
Periods every month not really necessary.
IUDs help remove your monthly menstruation.