Menstruation During Ramadan: Muslim Women Navigate Fasting Challenges

The subject is taboo and it often has to be approached tactfully. During their menstruation, the majority of Muslim women stop fasting for a few days, only to make up for these days later. This is known to everyone, but the problem lies in the fact of "showing off eating during Ramadan, attracting many questions and having to answer them". The embarrassment is in finding the words to explain to all those who ask the reasons why you are eating while others are fasting, indicates terrafemina.com.

In France, this same taboo on periods is felt by Muslim women who fast during Ramadan. Latifa, who works in advertising, says that "it remains a kind of secret; there is no question of displaying one’s condition and getting up to have breakfast in the kitchen like every morning. There is a certain modesty, whether towards women or towards men. In any case, it is a matter of pretending to fast and participating in the evening meal like everyone else as if nothing had happened". She adds that "the fear of being seen eating pushes many to endanger their health".

Salma describes the same situation. Even though she works in an environment where there are many more women. "I try not to necessarily eat or drink if my boss is there for example. He is not Muslim, he is very open-minded; but it’s true that if he sees me eating, he’ll try to understand why and I can’t really explain the reason to him. I’ve been trying to "de-complexify" myself a bit for a few years now," she says.

For Nüum, a former French teacher who has become a marketing specialist, "if you eat in front of your father for example, you are yelling at him that you are indisposed and it is ’shameful’". On the other hand, Myriam does not experience it that way at all. "Despite a certain rigor on cultural and cultural principles on which my family is based, I have never experienced rejection. I stopped fasting and resumed once the period was over. They told me not to fast during, not because I was considered impure, but because it was exhausting". She adds that "Ramadan is contraindicated in pregnant women, children, the elderly and travelers. Are we going to consider these people as ’impure’?" For her, fasting is a personal journey and a woman who has her period during this time should not be exposed to prejudices.