Dignity. Period!
Imagine a box of tampons costing half of your monthly income.
Sound ludicrous? That’s the situation in Zimbabwe.
Feed your family? Pay rent? Or buy sanitary products?
From this article in the UK Sunday Times:
SHE has been arrested 22 times, tortured so badly that her front teeth were knocked into her nose and had an AK-47 thrust up her vagina until she bled. Thabitha Khumalo’s crime: to campaign against a critical shortage of tampons and sanitary towels in Zimbabwe, one of the least talked about and most severe side-effects for women of the country’s economic crisis.
[…]
So desperate is the situation that women are being forced to use rolled-up pieces of newspaper. Zimbabwe already has the world’s lowest life expectancy for women — 34 — and Khumalo believes these unhygienic practices could make it drop to as low as 20 because infections will make them more vulnerable to HIV. “It’s a time bomb,” she said. The shortage is forcing schoolgirls to stay at home when they start menstruating.
[…]
When an MP raised the issue in parliament, government ministers fell about laughing and dismissed the matter.
Read the whole article.
Head over to here to see what you can do to help.
[Via Feministe]