Editing Menstruation (section)

==== Seclusion during menstruation ====

{{Further|Chhaupadi|Seclusion of girls at puberty}}

[[File:Mass-Community_Health_Teaching.JPG|left|thumb|Awareness raising through education is taking place among women and girls to modify or eliminate the practice of [[chhaupadi]] in [[Nepal]].]]
In some cultures, women were isolated during menstruation due to menstrual [[taboo]]s.<ref name="Gottlieb2020">{{cite book | veditors = Bobel C, Winkler IG, Fahs B, Hasson KA, Kissling EA, Roberts T | title = The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies | vauthors = Gottlieb A | chapter = Menstrual Taboos: Moving Beyond the Curse | year = 2020 | pages = 143–162 | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | isbn = 978-981-15-0614-7 | doi = 10.1007/978-981-15-0614-7_14 | pmid = 33347165 | s2cid = 226694557 | chapter-url = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK565616/ | access-date = 27 February 2021 | archive-date = 7 April 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220407151014/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK565616/ | url-status = live }}</ref> This is because they are seen as unclean, dangerous, or bringing bad luck to those who encounter them. These practices are common in parts of South Asia including India.<ref name="KleinmanGood1985">{{cite book| vauthors = Kleinman A, Good BJ |title=Culture and Depression: Studies in the Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Psychiatry of Affect and Disorder|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27UwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA182|year=1985|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-05883-5|pages=203–204}}</ref> A 1983 report found women refraining  from household chore during this period in India.<ref name="DelaneyLupton1988">{{cite book| vauthors = Delaney J, Lupton MJ, Toth E |title=The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=njfQfrMr31EC&pg=PR9|year=1988|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-01452-9|page=14}}</ref> [[Chhaupadi]] is a social practice that occurs in the western part of Nepal for [[Hindu]] women, which prohibits a woman from participating in everyday activities during menstruation. Women are considered [[Impurity|impure]] during this time and are kept out of the house and have to live in a shed. Although chhaupadi was outlawed by the [[Supreme Court of Nepal]] in 2005, the tradition is slow to change.<ref>{{cite web|date=August 2011|title=Nepal: Emerging from menstrual quarantine|url=http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=publisher&publisher=IRIN&type=&coi=NPL&docid=4e3f7ae82&skip=0|work=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)|access-date=23 February 2021|archive-date=29 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129030810/http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=publisher&publisher=IRIN&type=&coi=NPL&docid=4e3f7ae82&skip=0|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|vauthors=Sharma S|date=15 September 2005|title=Women hail menstruation ruling|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4250506.stm|work=BBC News|access-date=17 November 2014|archive-date=31 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100831235652/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4250506.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Women and girls in cultures which practice such seclusion are often confined to [[menstruation hut]]s, which are places of isolation used by cultures with strong menstrual [[taboo]]s. The practice has recently come under fire due to related fatalities. Nepal criminalized the practice in 2017 after deaths were reported after the elongated isolation periods, but "the practice of isolating menstruating women and girls continues."<ref name="FAWCO_2019">{{cite web|vauthors=Canning M|date=September 2019|title=Menstrual Health and the Problem with Menstrual Stigma|url=https://www.fawco.org/global-issues/target-program/health/blog-health-matters/4146-sample|work=The Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas, Inc. (FAWCO)|name-list-style=vanc|access-date=23 February 2021|archive-date=14 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814202359/https://www.fawco.org/global-issues/target-program/health/blog-health-matters/4146-sample|url-status=live}}</ref> Not all cultures villainize menstruation, the Beng people of West Africa consider menstrual blood as sacred and recognize its significance in reproduction.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-29 |title=Egyptians used papyrus—and other ways of handling periods through the years |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/periods-menstruation-women-history-ancient-egypt |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=History |language=en}}</ref>