A Rohingya Woman Steps Out of a Taboo

Momtaz Begum was startled at the topic of discussion at a group meeting in the Rohingya camp. Never could she imagine that she would be learning about hygiene practices in regards to menstruation, which is considered shameful by the community she lived in.

Momtaz was attending a focus group discussion conducted by Friendship as a part of the IOM project: Humanitarian WASH assistance to Rohingya Refugee. The project has been implemented to enhance the understanding of good hygiene practices for the Rohingya, which is key in maintaining hygiene and sanitation in the massive Rohingya camps.

                          Momtaz Begum

Although initially Momtaz was feeling too shy to participate, seeing other women sharing their experiences encouraged her, and out of curiosity to know more, she also joined in. She shared with them that every month she faced great difficulties during her menstruation cycles. All her life she used cotton cloth which she dried in secret, instead of using sanitary napkins. During her period, when she used to feel too unwell to do her household chores, her family used to scold her. She could never share her difficulties with her husband as menstruation was deemed a taboo topic. She even slept in a separate bed to avoid the supposed shame of staining the bedsheets. Moreover, she used to avoid eating nutritious foods in fear of heavy discharge during her periods, so as to be inconspicuous about her condition.

At the group discussion, she was greatly surprised to learn that there is no shame in menstruation, as it is a natural monthly cycle for every girl and woman up to the age of 45 or more. Instead, the health condition should be shared with family members so that they can be understanding. For the first time in her life, she learnt about the need to increase the intake of water, nutritious food and maintain hygiene practices by changing the sanitary napkin more than 4 to 5 times a day. The need to dispose sanitary napkin in a designated place or pit was also highlighted, for everyone’s health and safety.

“We have never had such training about personal hygiene in Myanmar. We are grateful to Friendship and IOM for providing us with such useful information”, said Momtaz. Now Momtaz is eager to share her newfound knowledge with other Rohingya women in the camp, so that they can also benefit from it. Her knowledge, she feels, should be shared by all, but not her shame. She believes that by relating her experiences to women going through the same thing, she can diminish if not eliminate the anxiety and health risks that she had to suffer through herself at one time.

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