3 Comments
Sep 6·edited Sep 8

I got in trouble on Indian Twitter for talking about this. In some parts of India when a girl gets her first period there's a ceremony and celebration. Someone posted an article about this criticizing the practice. All the conservative folks commented how great that their religion is for celebrating adulthood etc.

I asked them then why the same religion isolates them during periods, bans them from doing religion rituals and entering temples and in temples like Sabarimala bans entry altogether of women between ages of 10-50. A woman got into a spat and verbally abusing me which was a very long exhaustive thread. From her language she seemed to be a well educated person. The essence was it is our centuries old tradition and "dharma" so on. I really d ont engage with trolls but I had to engage with her. Luckily no one complained about hurting community sentiments and removing my post like as happened with Rupi Kaur.

I'm a male Ob/Gyn based in the US and I find these customs reprehensible. The impurity nonsense and stigma in India and other S. Asian countries is appalling and many well educated Indian fami lies/ women still routinely practice it.

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Why do you think the general population is so obstinate about these particular rituals?

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The speed of urbanization in Bangladesh has been pretty astonishing

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