The Dilemmas of Women and Menstrual Health in Conflict Zones

Beliefs in Action

Human actions are manifested by the beliefs and truths we live by. Hence, it is undeniable that no one has the exact same experiences that shape their humanity. For example, some people think that working to live is the optimal way to perceive life, and other lives fit the opposite principle. Some people live by the truths of their culture, while others find comfort in the modernity and evolution that are present in our world. 

Menstruation as A Universal Experience for Biological Women

Despite this fact, humans bond over the constant events that happen to each other—no matter the color, gender, or economic status of a person. For women, it is their menstruation. According to UNICEF, women experience menstruation for 7 years. Those 7 years can be greeted with relief, fear, and, for sensitive cultures, disgust. The beliefs on menstruation evolve to become a more accepted topic in conversations. However, reasons for inadequate menstrual health being practiced worldwide evolve as well—danger zones being one of the scariest and incapacitating situations of them all.

What are conflict zones? According to Children in Conflict Zones (Prasad, 2011), conflict zones are areas of war or political instability that make it difficult for humanitarian services such as sanitation and health to reach the common people. In discerning the impact of conflict on the maintenance of worldwide menstrual health, it is important to consider the lives that the majority of these women prioritize over their own. In Afghanistan, deaths of birthing mothers are recorded to happen once every two hours (Al Jazeera, 2023). A leading cause to pregnancy failure, implications, and infertility is poor menstrual hygiene (World Bank, 2022). Mothers make up a good fraction of menstruating women worldwide. These complications are caused by the overwhelming concerns that conflict brings. It is not only the woman who gets hurt, but the generation that could have been saved if adequate attention is given to menstrual health and hygiene as conflict resolutions are taking place.

In countries like Afghanistan, women are stripped of their rights to make choices that benefit their health. Just like how the authors of an article by Think Global Health (2023) phrased it, periods don’t stop for conflict. Menstruation is a part of a biological woman’s life, and it is imperative that world leaders think about the people who bear the next generation while resolving the conflicts that are present in the current one. Periods don’t halt just because there is a more severe and overwhelming problem in a woman’s environment. Once the cycle says it is time, a woman’s burden increases tenfold just handling the stress of living in a conflict zone and the stress of a biological process. 

Women act, survive, protect, and bleed in and out of conflict. Neglecting their dilemmas only makes the foolish present responsible for the downfall of the unknowing future. 

By Veronika Bianca G. Millena

References

1. Al Jazeera. (2023, December 27). Photos: “dying every two hours”: Afghan women risk life to give birth. https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/12/27/photos-dying-every-two-hours-afghan-women-risk-life-to-give-birth 

2. Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Birth mother definition & meaning. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/birth--mother# 

3. Periods don’t stop for conflict: Think global health. Council on Foreign Relations. Periods don’t stop for conflict: Think global health. (2023, March 3). https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/periods-dont-stop-conflict 

4. Prasad, A. N., & Prasad, P. L. (2009, April). Children in conflict zones. Medical journal, Armed Forces India. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4921424/ 

5. World Bank Group. (2023, May 30). Menstrual Health and hygiene. World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water/brief/menstrual-health-and-hygiene