It’s 2020 and women in your household are still having to act like they are fasting and offering prayers five times a day. All of you seem so oblivious to women’s menstrual cycle and consider it so impure that you don’t even want to address the fact that women do not have to fast for one week in Ramzan because Islam tells them not to. Mothers in many desi households force their daughters to not eat or drink before their male family members, not because it would entice them and they cannot eat but because in a strictly religious household where you are expected to fast the entire month, a woman not fasting can only mean one thing. And God forbid someone finds out that she is on her period!
In case you didn't know, let me enlighten you: every month, our bodies go through a week of immense pain and discomfort. This is because our uterus lining gets thicker to prepare for a fertilized egg if we were to become pregnant. However, if we don’t get pregnant our bodies release that tissue where the fetus would have developed.
It’s basic science but I’m afraid our education system is too shy of the female body and the reproductive system and they probably stuck the two pages that talked about it to save your innocent brain from finding out.
I see this letter as a favour to all the women who go through period cramps but cannot hydrate themselves by drinking the much-needed water or juices because what if their father or brother found out they are not fasting and try to interrogate them? It’s better to go through an entire day of feigning a fast than to talk about our period, solely because of how tabooed the topic is in our society.
So men, the next time you see women in your household skipping a prayer or eating during fast timings, try to be kind and empathetic because they’re already going too much pain and you do not want to pile up to that burden.
Thank you.