As a girl growing up in India, we’ve all been a part of some awkward conversation in our teens, that is related to menstruation. Most often, the concept of period talk is a rarely existing conversation in Indian homes. And not through some uncomfortable instances, that we learn about our own bodies. Talking about her experience with it, actress Fatima Sana Shaikh speaks about her introduction to the concept.
In the latest episode of Hauterrfly’s The Male Feminist, hosted by Siddhaarth Aalambayan, Shaikh talks about “menstruation,” and how she was introduced to the term. She starts–”In my school, a few girls would make a group and talk about it in a hush-hush tone. And I would always wonder, what they were discussing. There was a sense of unity and the group would question–”tujhe hua kya?” She mentions that on refusing so, they would not let her into the group, saying–”you can’t come in the group then.” Furthermore, Sana shares how this would always make her teen self wonder what exactly was it all about.
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As a grown-up, Fatima mentions a weird instance, which also says a lot about our society’s viewpoint on menstruation. She says–”There was this incident that happened, which was very traumatic for me. So, I was going somewhere and I was wearing white pants and I was leaked and I had no idea.” She adds–”I remember I was out shopping and was looking at a few clothes when I suddenly realised people looking at me. This made me question why were they staring so much?” Later when she took the rickshaw and reached back home, she realised her pants were totally red from behind. She was also surprised at the fact that no one bothered to even tell her that her pants are red, or maybe she got her period.
Talking about this, Shaikh mentioned that this is the amount of social stigma attached to menstruation. She added–”Women are not supposed to cook, not allowed to touch certain things, and basically the idea of making women feel that they are untouchable is a very bad feeling.” Well, she is not wrong. There have been so many personal experiences where I’ve also had men around me mocking the concept or the girl who is on her periods. In this exclusive chat, the actress also speaks about her experience with catcalling, her idea of feminism and more. Catch the full episode here: