Rethinking the menstrual hut
On the one hand, obviously (???) there is something problematic about societal obligations upon women to go into seclusion when they're menstruating -
On the other hand, though that part of my life is long behind me, there were certainly times when I would have liked to withdraw from the pressures for a day or so and just chill out with a hot-water bottle and some not too taxing occupation.
And on the prehensile tail, when cultures have those taboos around female periodicity, it may take some while to change them entirely.
A Controversial Solution To Menstrual Exile: Building Better Menstrual Huts: For years, the government and some nonprofits have led a movement to convince communities to get rid of the practice completely. That hasn't yet happened. As for the interim solution of improved huts, some menstrual health activists think it ends up validating the tradition of menstrual exile.
BUT
I can't help wondering that if, when women retreat from society, it makes rather a big difference whether they are heading to 'a mud shack with a broken door and no toilet. When it rains, water leaks through the mud-tiled roof' spending time in uncomfortable and insanitary mud huts, 'sleep[ing] on the floor over a burlap sack', being stung by scorpions, 'suffer[ing] snakebites and physical assault'. OR whether they are going to conditions which are not punitive: 'a fan, beds, mattresses, running water, a medical kit and an indoor toilet. There's a proper door and lock'.
I do think that might begin to make attitude shifts in itself.
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