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The campaign "Legalize menstruation" is born in Italy

The campaign "Legalize menstruation" is born in Italy

Menstruation is neither a privilege nor a luxury. 1.9 billion women in the world have periods and life is not easy during "those" days.

The discrimination they experience can be of different types: from social isolation, to not recognizing pain from ignorance about the symptoms of premenopause, from jokes, to hatred or contempt, not to mention the difficulties to access public toilets or hygiene products .

For these reasons WeWorld, an independent Italian organization that for over 50 years has been involved in development cooperation and humanitarian aid projects to guarantee the rights of all people, created the "Legalize Menstruation" campaign.

As part of this campaign, several posters have been published that have been placed on the streets of Italy. In most of them, the softly spoken word "menstruation" is capitalized.

"It should not be talked about, not mentioned. When we have them, we have to hide them. If we feel bad, we can't say it. It sounds like a Chuck Palahniuk novel. Even if we talk about it, others think that during those days we are not professional, we are not sexy, we are not clean, we are not interesting. Others say: Women's work. At this point we began to understand that menstruation is actually seen as something illegal. This is how the name of the campaign was born", say the organizers.

"What is needed is to adopt the perspective of menstrual justice. When there is menstrual justice, all those who menstruate can have access to the menstrual products they want, be free to make decisions about their bodies, get the right information, experience their periods without stigma and psychological distress, and not be limited to participate in social life", says Martina Albini, head of the association.