Kenyan politician asked to leave over ‘period stain’: How common is period shaming?

Women bleed. Period. By 2023, you’d expect the world to have come to terms with that fact. It has not. The brouhaha around it continues and period shaming persists. Now a senator in Kenya is doing what even politicians in the progressive West haven’t. Gloria Orwoba is fighting the good fight against humiliation linked to menstruation.

What happened in Kenyan Parliament?

Gloria Orwoba was on her way to work and before she entered Parliament she noticed she had stained herself. She has been campaigning to end shame around periods and thought now was the time to put her words into action.

When she walked into the Parliament, her white trousers had blood stains. This did not go down well with her colleagues who thought Orwoba was being disrespectful. Soon, she was asked to leave the floor.

The senator is now being criticised by other MPs, including women senators.

Senator Tabitha Mutinda thought that Orwoba was disrespectful and inappropriate. She asked the speaker during a plenary session if Orwoba had followed the dress code. “You don’t understand if she’s on the normal woman cycle or she’s faking it, and it is so indecent,” said Mutinda, according to a report in the BBC. The opposing MP said that this was not setting a good example for girls and young women in Kenya.

Orwoba said that it was “an accident that is natural”. “I have stained my clothes and at the end of the day I just want to know while we are discussing this issue that is not in the order paper, is it because senators are not women who have periods,” she asked.

We welcome Nominated Senator @gloria_orwoba move of giving notice of motion on Free Sanitary towels ending period poverty and stigma in our society. Period Poverty and Stigma is a stumbling block to our girls education and dignity.#BringingGirlsBackToClass#EndPeriodPoverty pic.twitter.com/ENC3NI1SBJ

— Pads 4 Education (@Pads4Education) February 14, 2023

But her argument fell on deaf ears. Speaker Amason Kingi had the same opinion as the majority and he asked Orwoba to leave. He said that there was a behaviour that a woman is expected to uphold whenever they are going through their period. According to him, Orwoba was not being discriminated against and he sympathised with her situation.

“Having periods is never a crime,” he said. Yet he directed her to leave and come back with clothes that are not stained, reports The Standard, a Kenyan newspaper.

Also read: Take stigma out of menstruation: Involve men in conversation

What did Orwoba do?

Orwoba refused to be shamed. She left the Senate building but did not change her stained clothes. After speaking to the media, she visited a school in Nairobi to distribute sanitary napkins, according to the BBC.

Orwoba has been campaigning to end the shame associated with menstruation and fight period poverty in Kenya. She has been behind a motion calling for an increase in government funding for free sanitary pads and hygiene products related to menstrual health in public schools in the country, the report says.

How prevalent is period shaming in Kenya?

It was in 2019 that period shaming drew attention in Kenya after a 14-year-old schoolgirl killed herself.

In September of that year, a girl in Kabiangek, west of Nairobi, was found dead. She had reportedly got her period and stained herself. Her teacher had allegedly called her dirty and expelled her from class, according to a report in The Guardian.

Her mother later told the media that it was the teen’s first period and she did not have access to a sanitary pad.

The death brought under scrutiny a 2017 law that required the Kenyan government to distribute sanitary napkins to all schoolgirls. However, it has been poorly implemented.

After the incident, women politicians were up in arms, protesting the girl’s death. But little has changed since.

How bad is the situation?

Kenya has in the past acted to address the problem of menstrual hygiene. According to the 2017 law, all schoolgirls are to get free sanitary pads. It stated that “free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels” must be provided to every girl registered at school and it aimed to provide a “safe and environmental sound mechanism for disposal”.

In 2004, the country did away with a tax on menstrual products. On paper, it sounds good but the reality is starkly different.

According to studies, 65 per cent of girls and women in Kenya cannot afford feminine hygiene products. Around one million girls miss school every month as a result of their period as they don’t have access to pads or other essentials they need.

Period shaming and lack of access to napkins cause anxiety. Some hide in their homes during their cycle.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, the situation is similar. A 2014 Unesco report estimated that one in 10 girls miss school during menstruation, which means they miss out on 20 per cent of their schooling each year.

What about the rest of the world?

The problem of period shaming is prevalent the world over. According to a poll conducted by The New York Post in 2018, of 1,500 women and men across the United States, 58 per cent of women have felt a sense of embarrassment simply because they were on their period.

Forty-two per cent of women have experienced period shaming, with one in five being made to have these feelings because of comments made by a male friend. Additionally, twelve per cent of women have been shamed by a family member and one in ten by a classmate, the report says.

It's not very different in the UK. ActionAid UK research revealed that a quarter (26 per cent ) of women in the country have faced period shaming with one in ten (11 per cent) experiencing negative comments from a current or ex-partner.

Millions of women have missed exercise, education and work over the last year when they are on their period. A quarter (27 per cent) of 16 to 24-year-old women in the UK said that being on their period has made them feel anxious in the last 12 months.

In India and several other countries, menstruating women face restrictions – they are considered “impure” and are asked to stay out of kitchens. Often they are excluded from religious and social events. In some communities, especially in rural areas, they have to stay in separate spaces.

Shaming need not always be verbal. Even today, pads are wrapped in newspapers when sold. Hiding pads under your sleeve or in the pocket is all too common.

A Chinese woman named Jann told Buzzfeed that in Malaysia women “wash out their tampons with soap and water before disposal, as it is thought to be unclean otherwise”.

A period stain even made Instagram uncomfortable. In 2015, it deleted a picture posted by poet Rupi Kaur, which showed a woman laying in bed with blood stains on her sweatpants and bedsheet. The app sent her a message stating that the shot violated community guidelines. According to those guidelines, Instagram takes down photos displaying nudity, sex acts, or violence. Menstruation has no mention but it somehow was not acceptable.

Period shaming is everywhere. If you are a woman and reading this, you probably think twice before wearing white trousers while menstruating. That’s proof enough.

With inputs from agencies

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