Religion & Menstruation
“My belief is stronger than your doubt.”
A lot of us grow up with beliefs being transferred to us like how money is
transferred to bank accounts. At a young age, we’re not able to understand the
rationale behind them and when we’re older we become too inflexible to question
the wheels we are a cog in.
An important force behind the beliefs we are taught is religion. Today, I’ll be
talking about the 3 most prominent and widely followed religious systems in the
world today: Hinduism, Christianity and Islam.
Traditionally, many people say that the reason for the many restrictions on
menstruating girls is because menstruating women are impure.
In Hinduism, girls are not allowed to go near the kitchen or Pooja Room. They are
debarred from attending festivals and entering places of worship. Why are there so many restrictions when a woman cannot control when she menstruates? However, the religion itself seems to have a different explanation. Every person has an innate energy in their womb called the ‘Jaatara Agni’ according to Hinduism. This energy is innately higher in women and places of worship are also rife with the same type of energy. That’s why it is claimed that menstruating women’s Jaatara Agni will rise to dangerous levels if they visit places of worship.
This is also the reason why women cannot utter certain other chants such as the
Rudram, which instigate the Jaatara Agni.
In Christianity, the Old Testament was followed first. The rules in place were to
guide people who were travelling from Egypt to Israel. Their living conditions were extremely different. There were no proper lavatories or disposal mechanisms and the clothes they wore were different too. With limited supply of water and sanitary options, menstruating women were asked to be kept separate. Under the Levitical Law, there were many extensive rules put in place for the safety and security of people. If there was an infectious disease, they were quarantined and asked to say ‘Unclean, Unclean, Unclean’ since there was no communication system to get the word across.
However, in the New Testament, Jesus changed many provisions to suit the people. The old rules were made obsolete by him. While the provisions of the Old
Testament are of immense spiritual relevance, they should not be taken literally.
In Islam, the sources of knowledge are the Quran and Hadith, the life of the
prophet. Menstruating women do not pray and fast due to physical reasons. It is to avoid strain, not because they are impure or menstrual blood will contaminate
spiritual proceedings.
If you observe closely, there is a common thread of misunderstanding and
sensationalization about menstruation across different parts of the world. Religion
and the beliefs they propagate are never born hateful, they can only be twisted to
display as such. So the next time someone says a menstruating woman is impure, you know what to say!