Press
Book Riot
17 Aug 2022
Book Riot
8 essential books about the female body that dispel misconceptions.
This book brings into focus important perspectives about menstruation by voices from across the globe. It endeavors to remove superstitious beliefs we have regarding this extremely normal bodily function. Full of essays, artworks, stories, and poems from policymakers, artists, activists, and academics, this book is a great study on how menstruation is experienced in South Asia.
Money Control News
9 Aug 2022
Money Control News
Extract from an essay in Period Matters
This is especially true for some industries where male employers tend to hire women primarily because they are cheap labour, easier to control, make fewer demands and less likely to unionize. Thus, women do not always have the bargaining power vis-à-vis male employers to request period leave every month. In a society plagued by menstrual stigma, period leave cannot be left up to individuals to seek when required. The provision of paid leave for menstruation must be institutionalized at the workplace for all women for non-negotiable accessibility.
Excerpt from Right to Bleed in the Workplace by Radhika Radhakrishnan.
Deccan Herald
31 Jul 2022
Deccan Herald
Extract from the essay Menstruation Matters by Shashi Deshpande in Period Matters
There were no sanitary pads then. If there were, people who lived in small towns did not know about them and most could not afford them. And therefore, my mother sat at her Singer sewing machine and stitched protective pads out of old, soft cotton sarees. These ‘pads’ had to be washed every day. By me, of course. I hated this part of my five-day ordeal as much as I hated what had happened to me. A mixture of anger and resentment overwhelmed me as I scrubbed at the pads. And helplessness. This would now happen every month, and I would be burdened with the awfulness of it forever and ever. So it seemed to me.
www.deccanherald.com/amp/sunday-herald/sh-top-stories/just-seeing-red-period-1130897.html
The Print
7 Aug 2022
The Print
Extract from Hot Mango Chutney Sauce by Farah Ahamed in Period Matters
“He demonstrated, with jerking movements, how the girls wrapped each brick in a rag and used it to absorb the blood that dripped down their legs every month. Repulsed, we called Yunnus a pervert. But even as we joked, we’d never been more aware that the girls were no longer children, but young women. We noticed their budding breasts, the swagger of their hips and a new listlessness about them. And by and by, we came to realize that if one of them was on her cycle, all of the girls would disappear because they were forbidden from entering the shrine, begging at the steps, or eating free food from the langar. This was a relief, for the very idea of female blood was repugnant to us.”
The Chakkar
8 Aug 2022
The Chakkar
The most interesting essays, I felt, were those placed in different settings or unique customs. One of the most striking pieces is “Bleeding Behind Bars”, an interview Ahamed conducted with Erum, a woman who spent six years in prison in Pakistan. It gave an eye-opening account of what it’s like to menstruate in jail. The piece also spoke about one of my favourite topics related to periods: female solidarity. “It was the friendships that I made with other women that helped me through that difficult time. Who am I? Just another poor woman. But the solidarity with other women helped me, without which, I would not have survived,” says Erum.
Open Magazine
1 Aug 2022
Open
Period Matters provides a wide-angle view of the narrow means with which menstruators in South Asian countries are forced to deal with an involuntary body function. In addition to the interviews and essays, fiction, poetry, and art in the anthology capture the discourse on the gendered compulsions and problems faced by young girls and women, highlighting the immediacy of the issues.
The Estd
1 Aug 2022
The Estd
Op Ed by Farah Ahamed
The news spread like a swollen river flowing rapidly. A river with its own destiny through every village. From far away, people came in cars, buses, on motorbikes and on foot to pay homage to Lajja Gauri. After 1500 years, the 10cm tall, almost forgotten stone statue of the lotus-headed goddess had suddenly started leaking. Initially a drop, but then quickly a steady river of red liquid trickled from between her thighs. No one was in any doubt that the statue of the goddess was menstruating.
The Platform
18 Jul 2022
The Platform
Interview with Farah Ahamed
In the summer of 2019, I was working on an essay on how menstruation had been portrayed in fiction, by female and male authors and the differences in their approach. It occurred to me that the diversity of menstruation experiences could best be reflected in a book which included both fiction and non-fiction. When I started writing the proposal, in my mind it felt like the book was already fully formed. I decided the anthology would move away from the conventional to a deeper and more honest cultivation of stories about menstruation.
Scroll
17 Jul 2022
Scroll
Period Matters is a well-planned and a well-thought out book. Ahamed leaves no gaps. If there’s anything that you are curious about menstruation experiences in South Asia, rest assured, the book has an answer to it. Period Matters an inclusive representation of menstruators in the truest sense of the word.
Mint Lounge
17 Jul 2022
Mint Lounge
Nobody can question the “breadth of perspectives” Ahamed compiles, bringing together varied experiences in a laudable and much needed endeavour.
eShe
12 Jul 2022
eShe
The anthology is backed with diligent research, including painstaking interviews of those at the margins. Wrapped in the folds of her silken words, Ahamed expresses the raw emotions of a woman – any woman, from a convict to a nun, a sweeper to a corporate honcho – wondering What if? as her poem of the same title questions.
eshe.in/2022/07/12/book-review-period-matters-edited-by-farah-ahamed
The Tribune
10 Jul 2022
The Tribune
Human rights lawyer Farah Ahamed’s anthology is a grim reminder of the steps not taken further. It gives a peek into menstruation related practices across South Asia and the plight of women.