Bleeding in the Silent Gaze of the World

To be honest, I contemplated a lot about whether I should share this story or not because it has always been one of the most emotional experiences of my life. But even I as I battled with my thoughts, I was also concern about bringing attention to the stories of these women without reinforcing the narrative of representing women survivors of conflicts and wars as passive victims. So, my intentions are to share the story of young female refugees from Nigeria whom I interacted with and in the process, share my profound admiration for their indescribable strength even in the face of the most challenging of circumstances. It is the often-unshared story of the challenges that homeless and refugee women face when attempting to manage their periods.

Yes! Menstruation is the dirty word that we all must shush about. But before you dismiss me so easily, please take a minute and imagine the possibility where you are homeless and menstruating. Imagine the scenario where you have no means what so ever to take care of yourself. A situation where even rags become scarce and unavailable and you must bleed in the loud gaze of a silent world. I know this sounds like a horror script that is only ever alive on large screens and cinemas. Forgive me for disappointing you by telling you that this is a reality for many refugee and homeless women across the globe.

Barely two years ago, I worked with an international organization in 7 refugee camps in Cameroon as a communication officer. Theoretically, my role was quite an easy one as I had to document the stories of refugees from Central African Republic and Nigeria who fled the conflict and terrorist attacks in their country seeking refuge in Cameroon. Sadly, the process of documenting these stories became emotionally draining and heart drenching as I had to listen to some of the most heartrending stories of my life. On several occasions, I interacted with the women, girls and men but on one occasion, I met a girl whose experience transformed the way I perceived menstrual health forever. This young woman, just 19 years old with a century worth of experience and the strength of a trillion Amazons is a survival of a Boko Haram rampage that ravaged her village, killing her parents in the process. Let’s call her Aishatou.

Despite all that she has been through, witnessing the death of her parents, trekking for weeks to cross the border to seek refuge in Cameroon, bracing all odds, she arrived the refugee camp and had to deal with the new reality of her shattered world. A reality where the world watched for days as she had her period, the discomfort, the embarrassment, the loud silence and the vulnerability. According to Ms Aishatou, “the worst part of being a refugee woman is the fact that you have no security or privacy which makes it a challenge to have your period stain your clothes so publicly and you have nothing to do to help yourself. The public shame and embarrassment and the fact that it has become a common sight is not nice”

Her story is amongst the most inspirational stories that I had the opportunity to listen to while at the camp. Just like other girls fleeing the violence propagated by terrorist groups in Northern Nigeria, Aishatou was experiencing double jeopardy of being a victim/survivor of conflict and being a woman which even in times of peace and security comes with its own unique sets of challenges.

With the support of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Aishatou had settled at the Minawao refugee camp in the Far North region. With thousands of refugee’s influx in Cameroon’s refugee camps, it is not surprising that international bodies first strive to secure some of their visible needs like shelter, food, water and health units. With these other needs primarily targeted, girls like Aishatou are saddled with the responsibility of finding solutions to this monthly ordeal. This is further complicated if some of these girls had not received any form of reproductive health education prior to the conflict, necessitating the need for a comprehensive menstrual and reproductive health education that is designed to suit the needs of girls in conflict. The taboos surrounding menstruation is deeply rooted in cultural and religious beliefs which considers this aspect of women’s health as unclean thus reinforcing marginalisation and period shaming. Within family circles, some parents are afraid to have open discussions about menstruation with their daughters because they are afraid it will rob girls of their innocence. For girls from vulnerable backgrounds like Aishatou, poverty is an obstacle to accessing sanitary pads while lack of reproductive education has contributed to early unwanted pregnancies.

I was impressed last year when I learned of ongoing projects designed by some international organisations working in these refugee camps to meet the needs of these girls and ensure they access menstrual hygiene kits and promote menstrual health education.

I know that this sounds like a challengefaced by girls and women only in developing and conflict countries. I used to think so too but having lived in London for the last six months, I have observed with sadness the rate of homeless women that I see on the streets of London. Their faces, unspoken words but very expressive eyes remind me of Aishatou and the girls at the refugee camp. I wonder what they must go through every month just to access menstrual hygiene kits.

As much I commend the different organisations and initiatives around the world ensuring that women and girls have access to sanitary kits, I believe that it is important for governments and national and international health and education machineries to formulate policies that continues to mainstream menstrual health in different projects that aims to empower women and girls especially for those in emergency and conflict situation.

The media is an important tool and we should also make use of the power of technology to break the taboo surrounding this topic and highlight the challenges of all the Aishatou’s around the globe. It is unfortunate that humanitarian and government programs continue to fail to analyse the impact of conflicts on women’s menstrual health. This generic perspective is one of the main reasons why women’s specific needs continue to be side-lined in the corridors of policy making. Never the less, we must ensure that more stories like this one are brought to the centre of women’s empowerment debates not to shame or humiliate or profile the women as weak or suffering but to capitalise on the strength that they have exhibited to raise awareness on an issue as vital and important as menstruation because it matters!.