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Ricebox Studio: How is menstruation viewed within Islam?

Imam Aarij Anwer: Menstruation falls under ritual purification which is a big part of Islamic studies. It’s discussed strictly in the context of what a person in a situation should or shouldn’t do.Many girls also missed school during their periods, during my adolescent days, with some being mocked when they start their periods unexpectedly at school. This lived experience, coupled with how incidences of period poverty remain prevalent in my country, albeit not being given attention, inspired me to start an initiative where we put a spotlight on these issues.

RS: What activities are women exempt from during menstruation?

AA: The Prophet, peace be upon him, says menstruation is something God has created for the daughters of Adam. It is part of being a female, not something that should be shamed. It is mentioned in the Quran as adha, which means a painful thing. So the acknowledgement is there from both the Quran and from the Prophet that this is a natural process and simply how things are for all women.

Certain responsibilities are removed from a woman; she is not to pray when menstruating. This does not refer to a prayer for help or a prayer to God which is always permissible. Prayer here means ritual prayer that starts at a certain time, ends at a certain time, has specific movements, you face the direction of Mecca. That ritual prayer, a woman is exempt from. During her period, she is exempt from fasting in the month of Ramadan and is exempt from pilgrimage. These are the three main acts of worship in Islam.

RS: Why do you think women are exempt from these activities apart?

AA: The idea is that it’s not a stigma for a woman to be in that situation. It is simply a natural but painful process. It’s called the acts of worship. If a man or a woman are not in a state of ritual purity, they are not allowed to pray until they attain ritual purity. If I have used the restroom, I have lost my state of ritual purity. To regain ritual purity, I have to make Wudu (ablution). You wash your face, you wash your hands, up to your arms, etc.

Now, what does ritual purity mean? I keep adding the qualifier ritual because it doesn’t imply that a person is impure if they’re not in that state. It’s just a description of having to be in that state to pray. It’s a strictly religious requirement. The Prophet has said that people of faith are always pure, irrespective of what situation they find themselves to be in. This is strictly a matter of “are you able to perform an act of worship or not?”.

The same applies to men. You’re not allowed to do certain acts of worship until you meet the prerequisites. A woman being on her period puts her in a situation where she’s not in ritual purity until she finishes her period. And that’s not an indictment of who she is. That’s not an indictment of the gender, because this is a natural thing that God has written for the daughters of Adam. Like the Prophet said, it’s part of all women and neither is it a slight that this is somehow lesser in any way. If you’re not able to fulfill the prerequisite, you don’t perform that action.

RS: You keep referring to the daughters of Adam. Do stories refer to Eve as well?

AA: Of course, Eve was considered to be the mother of all the kids of Adam. This is just an expression in Arabic. Like your surname comes from your father. So it’s as if the Prophet is referring to all of humanity as one large family and their last name is Adam.

RS: Why do you think it is taboo to speak about menstruation when it is a very natural thing and almost half the world’s population experiences it at some point in their life?

AA: I teach at a school and I noticed that when I tell them we’ll be studying about menstruation, there’s a lot of resistance from the girls saying “No, we don’t want to talk about this in front of the boys.” I counter that with: you have fathers, brothers, male cousins, so you should know what happens to boys. Likewise, do the boys have mothers, sisters, cousins? Yes, so they should know what is happening to you. This is just how things are.

But there are sensitivities that people have developed over time culturally, that’s probably why it’s a taboo. Not because the scripture or the Prophet or the early codifiers of Islamic law made it a taboo. In fact, they spoke about it very openly, very respectfully, and in a very unambiguous way. It became a taboo when perhaps people didn’t feel that they had the expertise to speak about it or chose not to speak about it. That’s my assumption.

RS: So what would you say to those who shame their daughters or women about their periods in the name of culture or religion?

AA: That’s an unacceptable practice. If a culture is shaming women for something that the Prophet has said is a natural thing, something that the Quran says is a natural thing and it’s a painful process – meaning that empathy is required here, not shaming – that is unacceptable. A woman on her period is no less or no more than someone who is not on her period. The only difference is there are certain things ritually that she’s not doing whereas other things she would do. But as a human being, a person is exactly the same. Their value and their excellence is irrelevant with regards to their natural cycle of menstruation.

RS: Are there any positive interpretations or representations of menstruation within the Quran?

AA: There is an example of the wife of the Prophet, Aisha, who is titled “the mother of believers”. There are very beautiful descriptions of how the Prophet is lying on her lap while she’s on her period and the Prophet is reciting the Quran. She explained to her students that “the Prophet and I would be very close and loving in our relationship, but the only thing that would not be allowed is the act of intimacy itself”. The Prophet would be just as loving and romantic with her, when she is on her period because a woman is menstruating, doesn’t mean that she is any lesser.

Her example is the best example because she is married to the Prophet. She experiences these things on a monthly basis, and she’s the one who explained to us how he acted when she was on her period. That tells you that that’s the de facto understanding of Islam. If someone brings an interpretation that contradicts that, we say, “Well, that’s your opinion. It actually contradicts the way the Prophet acted with his wife.”

You can find interpretations of menstruation in the Jewish tradition and in the Muslim tradition that would blame the women or somehow degrade the women. Those interpretations that are negative are largely biased and largely people’s own opinions. Whereas if you look at scripture and its understanding from the Prophet, it’s very clear that this is a natural process.

RS: Are there any other positive stories within Islam about menstruation?

AA: There are quite a few stories where Aisha and the Prophet would often eat from the same plate and drink from the same cup. Maybe today we might find that to be a little gross, but back in the day, that was how you would express your feelings for the other person. So the two would do all that together, irrespective of whether she was on her period.

There would be women who would come and ask her questions on how they should interact with their husbands. Aisha is the one who’s liberating their minds by saying, “No, this is how me and the Prophet were.” Everything else we did like we would do in other times except actual intercourse. She would share her personal life with the women around her to explain to them this is what Islam is teaching. So I think that’s a really empowering narrative that Aisha is the one who pushes the envelope in medieval Arabia about what menstruating women can and can’t do.

RS: What would you say to women who feel impure spiritually during their period?

AA: In Islam, if somebody does something mandated by God, then that person is rewarded for that. If they refrain from something prohibited by God, then they’re rewarded for that. The fact that you’re stopping your ritual acts of worship, in accordance with the commands of God and his Prophet. That is a spiritually uplifting thing you should expect to be rewarded for.

RS: What would you say to women who experience menstrual leakage in a religious setting and feel ashamed about it?

AA: There’s an interesting story where there was once a young girl who was traveling with the Prophet and his family. She sat on a camel and had her first period and stained the saddle. She was quite ashamed by that. But when the Prophet heard about it, he said: “There’s nothing to be ashamed of” and he instructed to wash away the stains and just reuse the same saddle. Don’t try to replace it.

If something happens like that, the task is really clear. You just clean it the way any other impurity would be cleaned. It’s not that that thing becomes permanently damaged in any way.

RS: Within Islam is there any insertion or hymen taboo before marriage or if the woman is a virgin?

AA: There’s no virginity test to verify a person’s chastity. That construct isn’t found in the texts of Islam. The idea of using a tampon, as long as it doesn’t cause her to have medical problems afterwards, it’s something that is permissible irrespective of whether the person is married or not.

There was a woman who came to the Prophet and asked “I have a strong and prolonged flow of blood, what should I do?” And that’s her period.

He instructed her to use cotton to block the bleeding – this is analogous to a tampon, even though the cotton isn’t fully inserted into the hymen. But if women did that back in the day to prevent their blood from gushing, that’s an acceptable thing for them to do. It’s not a problem as long as it doesn’t cause any harm medically to the woman.

RS: Does the hymen itself hold any significance within Islam? And if so, why?

AA: It’s a body part, like any body part. In Islam, if a person is unfaithful, man or woman, they’re equally sinful. It’s not like a woman is more sinful if she is unfaithful to her husband and a man is not. The idea of promiscuity is equally disliked for both genders. So from that perspective, the hymen is irrelevant.

Physically a woman’s hymen might be broken in many ways – injury, accident or sports. That doesn’t affect them as a person. Likewise, a tampon doesn’t make them sinful. It’s not like a girl has lost her virginity because they’re inserting something there. Islamically there’s no precedence to prove someone’s virginity.

RS: Do you think Islamically there’s a responsibility to teach children about menstruation?

AA: Oh, yes, absolutely it is a responsibility to do so. For example, if you have a book that has 20 chapters of Islamic sciences, this would be chapter number three or four. If you’re going to teach an Islamic programme at a school and you have a curriculum, this has to be a component of it. If there’s a course being taught about ritual acts of worship, this has to be a component of it because it affects the ritual acts of worship for half the population. There’s a course taught on marriage and intimacy between couples. There’s a lot of advice and anecdotes and whatnot, but then this is a component in that as well because it affects intimacy of couples, and so on and so forth.