Period poverty and menstrual justice - the Balkan case
Last month, we wrote about period poverty and menstrual health focusing on the current situation in the UK. Similar research projects were completed in North Macedonia and Croatia where, especially between the female population, the poverty gap is huge.
Poverty makes girls especially vulnerable - without access to procure menstrual supplies, it could cause them to miss school or cope in different and less effective ways. Which of course in many ways, degrades their mental health and can cause feelings of shame. The aim of the research is to give a comprehensive picture of several aspects of the menstrual cycle including; availability of products, menstrual experiences, practices (stigma, shame, menstrual pain) and conditions for maintaining menstrual hygiene, estimation of individual monthly costs for sanitary products.
Women in rural areas in Balkan countries have great difficulty accessing health centres, there are very few gynaecological surgeries, contraception is not on the list of essential medicines and so on. In the last year, the situation and accessibility has only gotten worse due to the pandemic. At the end of 2020, the feminist organization Pariter presented some worrying results. Unfortunately, the tax on menstrual supplies in Croatia is 25 percent - the third largest tax on consumer goods in the world. According to the Croatian State Department for Statistics, the at-risk-of-poverty rate for girls aged 12 to 17 is 23.7 percent. This is also the highest at-risk-of-poverty rate when we look at all age groups of women of reproductive age (the time when they are menstruating). A third of women in Croatia are forced to save on insoles because they are too expensive. With some of them buying lower quality menstrual supplies due to higher prices, more than 10 percent of Croatian citizens are not even able to buy enough pads to change them regularly. An equal percentage of them cannot afford pads at all. More specifically, more than a third of respondents (36.4 percent) stated they have to buy lower quality menstrual supplies due to the price, with 8.3 percent stating that this is common and 28.1 percent sometimes. In North Macedonia, organizations such as Tiiiit! Inc. and Reactor – Research in Action are in the middle of the research process aiming to give a comprehensive picture of many aspects of the menstrual cycle; the availability of products, menstrual experiences and practices and the first menstruation. Jana Kocevska from Tiiit! Inc. shares the experience and results so far.
Image by Dario Sekulovski
What do we mean when we talk about menstrual poverty and menstrual justice?
Lately the public debate on menstrual justice is obviously opening in many political and social contexts around the world. This is in a way an indicator that the topic of menstruation has been under the carpet for a long period of time and it bears the burden of stigma, shame and taboo. Menstrual justice is about opening the debate, acknowledging that menstruation is an important natural phenomenon related to the sexual and reproductive health so politics leading to ending menstrual poverty should definitely be systematically supported by the national health program. Menstrual justice would mean that every person that menstruates should have the items most necessary for their period, shouldn’t be ashamed or hide themselves and should have the opportunity to manage their period with dignity. Menstrual justice means that marginalized people and minorities, people in different age groups or urban or rural areas should all have equal access to knowledge on menstruation, period free of stigma and clean period products. This can only be achieved with political will and well managed public health politics. The recent passing of the Period Products Bill in the Scottish Parliament was a marvellous process and it would be great achievement if all governments follow this example.
What are the experiences and knowledge so far, what is the current situation on this issue?
I could only share here what the situation in N. Macedonia is, since in many countries worldwide there is a different context and level of achievement in regards to this. Local NGO’s are trying to raise awareness about the importance of menstrual justice.
At the moment we are in the middle of the research process that aims to give a comprehensive picture of many aspects of the menstrual cycle, namely, availability of products, menstrual experiences and practices, the first menstruation. We want to see aspects that cause stigma and shame. It is also important to know more about how those who have menstruation deal with menstrual pain, what conditions for maintaining menstrual hygiene they have at home, at school, at work and in public toilets. We have finished the first phase of conducting a survey for people above 18 through which we managed to get answers from 2,696 people dominantly from the urban areas and women in their late 20s. Some of the key findings are that nearly 70% of the answers confirm that they were taught that it is shameful if menstrual blood is seen on your clothing, and 41% answered that they were hiding menstrual products while shopping or going to public toilets.
The number of 71% of the women that use painkillers to relieve menstrual pain needs to be taken seriously and leads towards advocating for a paid leave from work/school. The answers from the survey are fully in favour of Tax exemption for menstrual products and 90% consider that there are no conditions in public toilets to manage menstruation, and that there should be free period products in all public toilets, including schools. Even though the survey was answered by dominantly urban young population of women, 71% of the participants haven’t heard of menstrual poverty, which indicates that not much is known about politics related to menstrual justice. The questionnaire we prepared was intended for all citizens, and does not exclude anyone in terms of gender identity. At the moment we are conducting the second phase of the research on a national level in 17 high schools across the country. The study on menstrual justice in North Macedonia will hopefully come out this spring.
Is there a high rate of menstrual poverty in N. Macedonia and what does that mean?
Given the official statistics on the poverty rate in this country, that is most probable, even though the survey we conducted is not representative on a national level, and not many people from the rural areas have contributed to it. The basic household needs such as food, overheads and medicines are difficult for many citizens to manage. By that logic, purchasing menstrual hygiene products would be a luxury for most women. The official data published for 2019 report that in N. Macedonia a total of 455,600 people or 21.9 percent live in poverty. Just over half of these people are women.
This means that about a number of over 230 thousand women who would have difficulty obtaining menstrual hygiene products, excluding of course the number of those women who do not menstruate. In the last year, this percentage is certainly much higher taking into account the situation with the pandemic caused by COVID 19, where we monitor daily that since April 2020 the number of unemployed people in the country is constantly increasing.
Was there an initiative to reduce the tax on women’s products (following Germany, Spain, France) or maybe free products like in Scotland? What is the situation from the surrounding countries (except Croatia)?
In my knowledge there is still no progress in the neighbouring countries in regards to free period products. I sincerely hope that a regional advocacy plan could influence in raising awareness about the topic very soon. In North Macedonia there are small initiatives on the level of public debate and a demand by local NGO’s to introduce tax free period products. However, none of it has been brought to attention by decision makers at the level of public policy the way it was introduced in Scotland. We sincerely hope that this research will influence such an initiative.
Disposable products are harmful to the environment and are the result of consumerism that exploits this dimension of women’s lives as well. Reusable products like menstrual cups actually greatly reduce the monthly cost and are also much better for the environment. But how come this topic, the choice of different products and the evidence is rarely mentioned?
It is a fact that period products, as well as many other products for one use such as diapers etc. are environmental hazard so this is an issue that should address all types of waste and not necessarily concentrate solely on period pads. Then we have to understand that some people may find it difficult to use the menstrual cup and even owning one for others may be an issue of luxury. Reusable period panties are also very pricey and that makes them inaccessible to many people. So until there is a product that could be easily reached out to, or that’s offered by the public health care institutions, we cannot advocate in using only the period cup as the best solution.
Recently, a pilot program was announced that would start introducing sex education in Macedonian schools, so what do you expect from all this?
I am very pleased that finally there is a step forward in introducing comprehensive sexual education (CSE). This program will be piloting soon in four schools in two cities, Skopje and Tetovo and I sincerely hope that we will soon after have the CSE as a subject in every school! I expect more well informed youth in sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as positive behaviour practice in ending gender based violence and harassment. This altogether will for sure lead to a more democratic society even though at the moment there is a strong rejection by the parents and the general public. I hope that we will have the chance to see the benefits that sexual education will bring to our society.
Your organization Tiiiit! Inc. promotes women’s rights, you have been organizing the festival Firstborn Girl, one of the most important feminist events in Macedonia. What will be the focus on this year?
Firstborn Girl (Prvo pa žensko) is an open collaborative feminist platform co-creating alternative narratives through inclusive interdisciplinary independent artistic and cultural contents for diverse audiences in public space. In 2021 we will be hosting the 9th edition of the festival focusing on matters that are at the moment burning issues in the context we live in. Lately there has been a serious events of gender based violence and sexual cyber harassment, so the festival content will most definitely address this topic as well as the pandemic related problems that influenced women, LGBTI and other marginalized communities in the last period of one year. Apart from that, our aim is to support women on the independent cultural and artistic scene, which have been affected by the pandemic context or have developed content initiated by this precarious situation.
Poster from Firstborn Girl
