We are being taught more and more that the menses are natural and normal. What is still difficult to say (and to think) is that no, it is not dirty, not the woman is not a wild and impure beast. Yeah, yeah, it’s because of the religious heritage. I like to tell you that there is still work to do!
Zoom on the menstruation(periods) according to the three main monotheistic religions, namely Judaism, Islam, and Christianity,
Judaism
The rules this disgusting thing
In the Jewish religion, the perception of the menses is not really downright frankly funky … There are however two texts: The Old Testament and the Talmud.
The Old Testament:
There are two situations: The Nida, whose bleeding occurs at the time of menstruation, and the Zava, which bleeds outside the normal cycle. In the interpretation of Leviticus, the blood that flows from the woman is impure, and this impurity is transmitted to her touch. The woman thus experiences a period of monthly impurity of the duration of her menses about seven days.
Well, that’s understood, it’s so that her husband does not attempt to make advances to him, or tries to have sex, it helps to regulate births. But that’s not all! The Jews go even further … The woman does not only contaminate humans, furniture too …
Well yeah of course, it’s really impure a woman who has her period, so if a person touches her bed, her clothes or the sofa or the cushions on which she dared to sit, she will have to wash her clothes, take a bath, but in spite of everything, the person will remain unclean until the evening … Of course, the woman must not in any way touch anything sacred, like books, synagogues or other objects of worship … Some rabbis push the vice to say that the impure woman cannot pray or recite a blessing, but that, concretely, no text evokes it.
In the case of Zava, bleeding from not sure why or how long but it’s like that, the woman remains impure seven days after the bleeding ends. And she is impure even if the only drop of blood is as big as a grain of mustard …
The Talmud:
In the Babylonian Talmud, there is a decree of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi (Rabbi) which deals with women living in the countryside, in remote places without religious authority. For her women, it is difficult to differentiate between Zava and Nida for lack of education, so in all cases, it is necessary to wait seven days after the end of bleeding, it is the “seven clean days”. Little by little, in Judaism, we are going to leave on this system. We forget Nida or Zava and we count seven days from the end of the menstruation.
On the eighth day, to be totally pure, the woman must take two turtledoves (or young pigeons) and bring them to the sacrificer. and hop, it’s over, everyone is beautiful everyone is pure… Until next month …
Islam
The blood must stay away from God, the woman too
In Islam, it is very important to be pure, so the rules are a bit of a hassle. In fact, everything that comes out of the body is impure. From the booger to the menstruation. It’s dirty, impure, we do not want it! But,well… It’s natural and it’s like that … When the woman knows to bleed for a few hours, she is not completely impure. Simple ablutions before prayers suffice to wash her of her defilement. On the other hand, when the woman has her period of a minimum of one day and one night and a maximum of fifteen days, then that is something else. It must be purified and respect different prohibitions …
The husband should not stand aside when the woman is menstruating. Like, she is not contagious, he can eat at the table the meal she has prepared. In contrast, no sex, do not mess. The couple still has the right to roll their shovels or caress the body, but it is better to avoid “directly touching the region between the navel and knees,” according to the words of Aisha. Moreover, the Prophet ordered Aisha to wear a loincloth when she is with him during menstruation.
On the other hand, the woman must stay away from God. She does not have the right to pray. If she does, it counts for nothing, the prayer is invalid. Allah does not hear the bloody prayers. He put a filter. She also has no right to Ramadan. It can be played within an hour. If the woman is fasting and having her period before sunset, her fast does not count. It will have to be redone.
He is forbidden to read or touch the Qur’an. Finally, if her husband or kids pose the Koran before her eyes, she has the right to read it in her head, but certainly not to pronounce out loud what she reads. The woman who has her period cannot enter a mosque. Therefore, it is considered that it has less faith and becomes de facto inferior to man. Well yeah, of course. Must be an excuse. If she has the period even a minute after sunset, it passes. Even if the blood was already flowing inside her vagina, it does not matter, the fast is valid.
At the end of her period, the woman must take a purifying bath, it is a complete ritual bath. If she does not, she remains unclean. She must wash her whole body, even the skin of the skull. “Let one of you use water mixed with cedar and then perform ablutions properly and then pour water on your head and scratch it strongly so as to touch the skull and then pour again the water then she uses a piece of cotton scented with musk to clean herself with.” It’s the vulva she cleans with cotton. But we do not say words because we never know, a dragon could come out. Get out of the vagina.
When the girl has braided hair, she does not have to undo everything except if the braids are plated and thus prevent cleaning the scalp. It is important to pour water three times over the head to become pure again.
Christianity
The blood of God
Christianity is made up of three important branches: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. They have in common with the Jews the Old Testament. Let Leviticus be. You know, the thing about Zava and Nida. Also, the woman is unclean for seven days after menstruation. But in reality, in Christianity, if the menstruating woman is unclean, there is not so much purification ritual. According to the times, the water is badly seen, so we avoid washing,… and then the water becomes fashionable, …and we must take baths … In texts, if not Leviticus, nothing is said.
In the New Testament, we do not talk about menses. It’s not so much that we do not care, but hey, if there was to be one blood to glorify, it would be the sacrifice of Christ, obviously. Also, the woman, when she has her periods, sacrifices herself for procreation. Yes, in the Middle Ages, it is thought that the fetus comes from the sperm of the man and the coagulation of the blood of the woman. Well then! The man must, therefore, respect the cycle of the woman, it is then forbidden to sleep with her (otherwise, it will be impure for 7 days, it is the Leviticus that says it). On the other hand, the woman can and must pray, much, to get closer to the spirit of God. After all, she lives the same thing as him. The Sacrifice. Except that he died of it, and we get it every 28 days for forty years …
The fear is so inked around menstruation and menstrual blood that in the Middle Ages, we will think that the child conceived during the menses is duff or blind. Or both. If you do not sleep during the menses or a few days later, or at Christmas, or during Lent, Passover or other holy days, well … If we count, we can fuck for 70 days in the year … That’s that, religious contraception.
Obviously, the menses, perceived as an impurity, confined women to their role as mothers. By nature, she must stay home for fear of making the rest of the world unclean. Moreover, because of the fatigue or irritability that menstruation can cause, menstruation is considered a constituent weakness of women. And then hop, she is anyway, inferior to the man.
