Together Breaking the Taboo on Women’s Menstruation Through Photos Stories

Narriswari, Paraparabuku
published in JUBI Media

Talking about menstruation is generally still considered taboo. So how do you present experiences, efforts and challenges in achieving the right to healthy menstruation through photos and short text?

“When I was in 6th grade of elementary school my parents went to the garden. I’m at home with all the brothers. When I ‘got’ my first period, I (felt) embarrassed and panicked. I didn’t tell anyone, in the end I did it myself because I thought I had an injury,” .

Lami Faan

Lami’s story is one of 16 women’s experiences when they get their first menstruation. They shared it in the opening session of the Photostory workshop series. The workshop was held with the theme“Women Fight Against Period Poverty in Papua.”

In this first class, 21 participants created a safe space for each other to discuss their experiences on menstruation, menstrual health and rights, and the challenges of experiencing menstruation.

Lami’s story is a story of the society. Lots of women experience their first menstruation with panic, embarrassment, silence and harboring questions. Although menstruation is a natural process, part of a person’s life cycle, and must be endured throughout women’s lives – at least 400 times.

Amory Yaslin, a Sorong woman living in Abepura, explains the silence of discussing menstruation between women through her photographs. “In our boarding house, we never discuss the issue of sanitary napkins… (waste disposable sanitary napkins are thrown away carelessly). We can’t reprimand them,” she replied, reflecting her reluctance to ask and invite a discussion with her neighbors, fellow women, on how to throw the disposable sanitary napkins.

Difficulty in talking about menstruation can even occur within the closest circle, like family. Sovince Bano, in her fourth year since getting her first menstruation, still covering it from her family members.

Born as an only girl in the family, she was embarrassed if her four brothers found out she was menstruating. She would wait for the rest of her family to leave the house first, to dry and burn her used disposable sanitary napkins.

The period taboo strengthens ignorance about menstruation itself. As a result, girls who experience their first menstruation often feel afraid, ignore the need of menstrual health, and even experience infections in their reproductive organs due to the use of disposable sanitary napkins.

These various problems constitute period poverty, namely the situation of individuals, families and communities who experience difficulties or do not have access to achieve the right to healthy menstruation.

The Photo Story Workshop Is a collaborative work between ELSHAM Papua, the Biyung Foundation, and Parapara Buku. Its implementation is supported by Nyimas Laula – a female photographer who acts as a class facilitator, KEWITA Association, GIDI Women’s Department, Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR), Hapin-Papua Support Foundation, PUSAKA Bentala Rakyat Foundation, and Belantara Papua.

For 3 months, starting from 7 October – 2 December 2023, the three stages that take place are preparation classes with material on Menstrual Health and Rights and Photo Story Techniques, the photo production process and assistance, and end with the photo stories exhibition for 8 days on 16 days of activism 2023.

In the process of producing photos, participants used a cellphone camera. Every week, they gathered virtually to brainstorm ideas, or consult their stories and photography techniques. Initially, they wrote down the ideas, planned a coverage framework, and assessed technical needs in the field. The committee team assisted in finalizing story-telling photo ideas and continued with the story and photo production process until photo curation and narrative editing.

Various challenges arose during the process. Starting from the difficulty of finding female representation from specific situations that are important to highlight. Then, online classes was not the ideal space to explore participants’ experiences and ideas while time is increasingly short. Some participants experienced technical problems, such as low internet signals and the lack of gadgets supporting participation in online classes and work production.

At the story editing stage, the committee team also considered the complete cultural context so that the menstrual taboo was not only understood as an act of excluding women who were menstruating. For example, the photo work presented by Irene Thesia. She took the menstruation myth from the Yaben tribe, her mother’s tribe. There is a belief in the Yaben tribe that women who are menstruating are not allowed to be close to their fathers or male relatives.

“Considered Pamali (taboo). When you go searching or hunting in the forest, (if a menstruating woman comes into contact with her father or brother) it could come up empty (no results)”

Irene Thesia

Irene then found out the origin of this myth. She met elders in Kayabo Village, Saifi District, South Sorong Regency. The results of their investigation found that the Yaben tribe believes that menstrual blood that comes out of a woman’s body is dirty and is associated with war.

They were one of the tribes that used to fight in the past, so blood coming out of the body was a bad sign.In the past, menstruating women retreated to a special place in the forest and wore grass cloth as a covering. According to Irene, the creation of this myth makes girls and women in the Yaben tribe lose the opportunity to bond with their fathers and brothers, who needs emotional support – especially during menstruation.

The difficulty to achieve the Right to Healthy Menstruation is not only the lack of money to purchase menstrual products or the lack of availability of menstrual blood collection products.The right to healthy menstruation is fulfilled when someone can access nutritious food intake; self-care, for example exercising or getting enough rest; healthy menstrual products; sanitation facilities; and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education.

A healthy social environment is also needed to fulfill the right to healthy menstruation. Starting from the role of the family in providing a safe space for girls and women, policies for implementing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education, and development that accommodates the basic needs of women, other gender diversity, and women with disabilities.

Defny Hamadi, one of the differently abled participants, said that her experience of getting information about menstruation was from her father and a male teacher at the Health Analysis Vocational School, where she received her education. Typically, Defny occupied the corner seat in the classroom. Still, the teacher asked her to sit in the second row so that she could read her lips more clearly when explaining reproductive health material, including menstruation.

The situation of period poverty in Papua is specifically characterized by a patriarchal culture that develops in society, exploitative development policies and armed conflict. The patriarchal culture that prioritizes men places women in a lower position and then forms a pattern of household work that women dominate.

In this story-telling photo work by Nita Horen from the Arfak Mountains, she told the story of her daily life, from feeding pigs, looking for firewood, managing the garden, and caring for children. There is almost no story about her resting, even when she was menstruating.

Faced with the government, girls and women are increasingly vulnerable to maintaining their reproductive health. Because the presence of extractive businesses changes the role of subsistence women into daily or monthly wage workers so that, the time to obtain food sources and medicines to support healthy menstruation from nature is reduced. Women then depend on their wages to buy commodities from the city.

In a conflict-ridden situation, gunfire between military forces and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) evicted girls and women from their hometowns, living without security or certainty in refugee camps, with difficulty in housing, food, clean water and various other basic needs. This situation makes it even more difficult for women and girls who menstruate.

Organizing the Storytelling Photo Class “Women Fight Against Period Poverty in the Land of Papua” is hoped to be part of breaking the taboo on discussing menstruation, which the owner of the menstruation can initiate.

Period poverty is a shared experience, not only felt by those who menstruate, so a more extensive movement is needed to end it. Participants from the Photo Storytelling Class “Women Fight Against Period Poverty in Papua” recorded their personal stories through photos and short narratives. Still, if we listen carefully we can grasp the complex nuances that menstruating individuals must go through to achieve health.

Rode Wanimbo, the head of the Women’s Department from GIDI, who attended the closing of the exhibition, gave her testimony,

“This photo stories method is very effective for campaigning on issues that we find difficult to talk about publicly.”

See the digital catalog here!