Menstruating woman and religion?

Question

Why does Hinduism treat women having their periods as something impure and dirty?

Women are asked to take pills to postpone their periods during a ritual, and if they do get their periods during some ritual they are sent out of their house.

In extreme cases, women are made to live in seclusion during their periods and not even allowed to touch any body.

I want to know why?

Do other religions have similar rules? How can women not rebel against such rules?

Answer 1

Well I cant accept it is as per hinduism as Gita upanishadas and Vedas, the authentic text have no mention of it

It is more of a cultural *** ritualistic taboo. There may be many reasons like :

=> women were given rest for 4/5 days from the tiring home jobs...in the name of religion

=> It may be having a negative effect on rituals, as during menses, a women may be having a low aura due to the egg being blasted and flushed

=>keeping secluded, not allowing to touch,sending out etc etc are deformations of the actual thing... and mind it is not always practiced by all hindus. Mainly in UP and Rajasthan and some states in South may be doing it. At least in my house-hold i never saw it happening

thanks for bringing up this important point

Answer 2

1> As Aum said, there's nothing like that mention in the scripts that women become impure or dirty during their periods.
2> During the periods, public contact of women had to be avoided to avoid her embarassment (no tampons those days, you know). Women were too busy cleaning themselves. Off course, they found very little time for other activities.
3> Hygiene, Health, Humanity are the basic ingridients of the culture. The cultural instructions were devised with respect to all 3 of them.
4> As few friends above suggested, few other cultures follow the same.

All the best...

:-)

Answer 3

There are cultures who considered women "unclean" and there are those that considered this a time of a woman's "power".

In many Native American groups, the time of menses was a time of a women's strongest power because of her ability to have children, which was highlighted by the fact that she could still menstruate. Her power was considered so great, that to touch a weapon could "drain" the "power" of the weapon, or unbalance it. Many women who felt called to Shamanism waited until their time of ability to have children was over (i.e. menopause) because their power was more balanced by not having to care for the kids, etc.

I never got too deep into women's issues in Hinduism, but I've noticed a strong desire to demonize peoples whose traditions are different from perceived "rights" vs. "wrongs" from their own cultural perceptions, (not saying this is what you're doing, I'm just trying to head off a mess at the pass). The Native American women, of the peoples who believed what I just wrote about, just saw it as a normal "thing" of life... few people fought the "norm" unless they were somehow "different" or "special", which, of course was an issue for the group to decide. So very seldom did the women feel "opressed" nor a need to "rebel".

Hope this helps you understand better.

_()_

Answer 4

Hindus seclude menstruating women. Christians call mensus a curse.Lev . 18:19
Moslem women after triple talaq (quick instantaneous divorce ) are maintained only for three menstrual periods to be left helpless afterwards.
Menstruation is a normal physiological event in a woman much like growing beard in men.
It should be understood in scientific spirit.

Answer 5

Firstly , I wonder how many of you are Hindus or are you just responding , for the sake of being argumentative?
Hinduism is areligion of mental as well as physical PURITY.This means that all our act or wirship must reflect this Purity and we as Hindus look at the different nature of our bodies at different times and periods. One of the point we miss is that impurity is not only in respect of women but also Men .So that all human beings are asked to keep a healthy and clean body to ensure at all times a health and clean stste of mind for the worship of God . Unlike some religions who dont hold to the concept of impurity of this nature , we as Hindus worship in a manner in which the Human body must be at peace with it selkf and all its organs must be in a positive mode of activity . When a human body is purging itself of the Eggs that are not fertilised it is rejecting from the womb that which we consider to dead matter trhat has lost its ability to exist and is now dead , sio it is a process of removal of decaying matter. In the hIndu worship we prefer states of life and the sustance of living energy .It not the persoin who becomes impure but the discharge of the body , This take energy and strenghts levels are low and the person it irritable and ned to be left alone to regroup her self . This is why seclusion is advised .Rest and healing .These are the treatment for tghis process. It is not that society of Hinsduism rejects them but it is a time when a person should be left quiet to go through a process that now prepares thenm for fertility and and oppertunity to become pregnant if possible. It is called of reffered toas the Period of Rue .We must see it as a natural order of Nature for a much deeper purpose .For this the old has to be cleansed and the body prepares it self for its next important stage of daily and monthly existance.
These same persons then becomes mothers and are rejoised in a festive manner . Who reject whom .It is a matter of ignorance rather than one of real understanding .This is the Science that Hinduism and many other relgions understand.

Answer 6

I know sometime we're asked not to do baptisms while we're menstruating - but that's just for sanitary purposes of keeping the font clean, no one really sees menstruation as "unholy" or anything like that - it's an important part of a woman's ability to bear life after all.

Answer 7

Native American woman had a separate tupee to hang out in during there time of the month.
Most of all the cultures I know of see a woman menstrating as disgusting or holy. The reasson I believe is b/c Men ran the world and they all shared the belief that menstration is just plain scary.
They still do so don't discuss it with them.

Answer 8

Actually, religion made birth control dirty to increase the size of religious families, after making sure they told parents to start teaching their kids about religion early on.

Answer 9

I agree with Miss ... above, even though her name is too goofy to type. The fact of the matter is that men have made these rules and men find menstruation icky.

Answer 10

Don't worry, jews think that menstruating women are unclean too.

Maybe you should become a mormon... they LOVE menstruating women because it means that they are fertile and can have lots of babies.

Yeah, I know... religion is sometimes incomprehensible.