Another Cultural Myth That Must Go: Menstruating Women Told Not to Cross River

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Beliefs can be useful… if they help. In Ghana, some beliefs are decidedly not helping. In a nod to the persistence of cultural taboos surrounding the natural process of menstruation, many women and girls can’t travel or go to school because a river god decreed… although they haven’t made the decree public… that they may not cross during their normal monthly biological cycle. The River Ofin, a boundary between the Ashanti and Central Regions of Ghana, supposedly has a guardian god who… if you can believe certain regional officials… decreed that women and girls couldn’t cross while menstruating, preventing vital travel and school attendance. Shamima Muslim Alhassan, the UNESCO menstrual hygiene ambassador, noted that the apparently anonymous deity travel directive is a violation of women’s rights and a violation of a child’s right to education:

It seems the gods are really powerful aren’t they? I think that we need to ask for some form of accountability from these gods.

According to the BBC, Kwamena Duncan, the Ghanian Central Regional Minister, indicated that he’d take the matter seriously by speaking to an Ashanti regional minister to find a solution.

Formed in 1946, UNESCO is the UN humanitarian assistance provider for children and mothers in developing countries. It estimates that at least one in ten female students in the region isn’t able to attend school when they menstruate. A recent World Bank report also notes that over 11 million women in Ghana lack appropriate hygiene and sanitation resources. Human rights issues resulting from cultural myths surrounding the biological process of menstruation persist, including in the island nation of Madagascar, where women are taught to avoid bathing during their period, and in rural areas of mountainous Nepal, where menstruating women must sleep in huts away from family.

15 January 2018

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/africa/201801151060751990-myths-surrounding-the-human-body/

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26 August 2017. A Point to Ponder from Kwame Nkrumah

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18 March 2013. Sergei Yolkin’s World. Argentina’s in the Finals!

Argentina’s in the Finals!

Sergei Yolkin

2013

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Note the blue and white stripes on Bergoglio’s cassock… no doubt, it’s meant to symbolise “team colours” in the World Cup. Pope Francisco is a big-time footy fan, so, Yolkin’s playing this for a laugh… as if it was a sports match. In other words, Turkson (for instance) was the favourite going into the match, but the “dark horse” won.

The RIA translator did a shitty job again. The title wasn’t “Winner Take All”, and “What a letdown” wasn’t a good translation of какая боль.

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Despite all predictions that the conclave would elect the first black pope, the new Pope of Rome chosen on 13 March was Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. He wasn’t among the favourites amongst the “papabili“, unlike Cardinals Peter Turkson of Ghana, Angelo Scola of Italy and Odilo Scherer from Brazil. Sergei Yolkin thinks that we should feel sorry for the “papabili” who didn’t make it.

14 March 2013

Sergei Yolkin

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/caricature/20130314/927221582.html

http://en.ria.ru/cartoons/20130314/180017411/Winner-Takes-All.html