{"id":14092,"date":"2018-06-11T11:45:23","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T07:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=14092"},"modified":"2018-06-12T08:28:56","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T04:28:56","slug":"menstruation-whence-the-taboo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/menstruation-whence-the-taboo\/","title":{"rendered":"Menstruation: whence the taboo?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Readers Speak\/Opinion<\/u><\/span><\/h5>\n

<\/p>\n

On reading Dr RN Gopee\u2019s article on Meghan Markle and the Myna Mahila Foundation (\u2018<\/em>Meghan Markle\u2019s Tikka moment\u2019<\/em>, MT 25 May 18)<\/em>, I asked myself when and how such a natural function as menstruation became taboo.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. From what I know it may have started by Moses, the Hebrew Leader, who stated:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cWhen a woman has a discharge of blood which is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in impurity for seven days\u201d and \u201cwhoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening\u201d\/\u201cAnd if any man lies with her and her impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days.\u201d (Leviticus 15, 19; 15, 21; and 15, 24 respectively in \u2018Revised Standard Version of the Bible\u2019)<\/span><\/p>\n

    Similarly if she should discharge blood at other times, she is declared impure and the impurity is passed on to whoever and whatever has been in contact with that blood (Leviticus 15, 25).<\/span><\/p>\n

    At Leviticus 15, 28, one can read: \u201cBut it she is cleansed of her discharge, she shall count for herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean\u201d and \u201con the eighth day, she shall present herself to the priest with one offering and become clean again\u201d\u2026 to receive her husband.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Did other contemporary peoples have the same regard for menstrual blood?<\/span><\/p>\n

    How did Moses come to that teaching?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Is there something more than meets the eye?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Seven days plus seven days = fourteen days, and plus one day gives the fifteenth day.<\/span><\/p>\n

    We, moderns, know that days 14 and 15 of the menstrual cycle correspond to most women\u2019s fertile period.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Did Moses know that? And if so, how?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Such practice by his people ensured the highest birth rate possible and considering the high infant mortality rate in desertic conditions, ensured their survival as a people.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. On the other hand, how many have suffered and are still suffering from the taboo?<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. One can easily surprise what must have been Moses\u2019 attitude and teaching concerning induced abortion.<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. A few days ago, on seeing a Government poster about physical punishment of a child, I remembered that during the campaign for the legalisation of abortion I wrote that such legalisation would lead some people to think consciously or subconsciously, or even to say to themselves or to some others: \u201cSi gouvernement permette touille enne piti dans ventre so mamma, qui faire emp\u00eache batte les autres enfants?\u201d (\u201cQui peut plus peut moins\u201d, was I quoting at the time).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Therein, I think, lies the root of increasing violence on children and such violence may be transferred to the child\u2019s mother, etc. \u2013 hence domestic violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n

      * Published in print edition on 8 June 2018<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Readers Speak\/Opinion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":12847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34],"tags":[10777,10779,10778,10780],"class_list":["post-14092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-readers-speak","tag-dr-fsl-ip-osk","tag-leviticus","tag-menstruation-taboo","tag-moses"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Reader.jpg?fit=663%2C417&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-3Fi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}