The story of an elementary schoolgirl named Zaina

This time, we’ll share with you an interview with 12-year-old Zaina who goes to public girls’ school in Irbid province in the north of Jordan. This interview was carried out by a local sanitary promotion coordinator of JEN Jordan office which is supporting the community (host community) readiness of Syrian refugees.

Even now in Jordan, there are not a few girls who get restless at the onset of their first menstruation because they have not been taught about the right knowledge about it in family nor in school. In this interview, Naiza said on the basis of her own experience that it is important for girls in adolescence stage to be open in talking about it and learn the right knowledge about it.

“I am Zaina, 12 years old. I live in Eiutou district, Irbid province in the north of Jordan. This is the first time for me to talk about my experience of menstruation, because I’ve never heard anyone talk about it and thought it shameful to do so. This time I’d like to tell about my experience for the sake of adolescent girls. I’ll be happy if I can give them some advice by telling frankly about menstruation, and I want to say it is not shameful to talk about it. I’d like them to learn something from my experience.”

“Even when I was 11 years old, I didn’t know anything about menstruation. I only remember that a teacher who taught us about religion said ‘If you have menstruation during Ramadan　(Islamic fasting month), you don’t have to fast for 40 days after delivery’. However, when we asked her about the meaning of menstruation, she didn’t explain about it, only telling us we would be able to understand when we grow up.”

“At home, my mother and grandmother didn’t talk about menstruation when I was with them. When they began to talk about it, they used a special symbol so that I couldn’t make sense of it or they talked in a low voice paying no attention to me. I was away from them feeling ashamed”.

“One day when I came from school, I experienced my first onset of menstruation without any pain. When I told my mother about it, she was surprised that I had reached the first menstruation too early. This time, she explained to me briefly that every girl reaches their first menstruation at a certain age and how physiological function works at that time.　When I asked when will it end, she said it would end in a few days. In fact, it ended in a few days, so I simply thought she had stopped it”.

“During menstruation, I heard my mother telling my father about it. He set a room of my own separate from my brothers’. He also drove me to and from school. After 11 months, I experienced the next menstruation. Then I got angry thinking it was my mother’s fault”.

“At that time, my mother explained to me more about it in detail, telling me that it was not an injury but a physiological phenomenon common to girls. She asked my younger brother for the first time to buy menstrual napkins for me, and when she saw him bringing them home with his bare hands, she got angry. Then she prepared 2 trash boxes, one is for our family and the other is for women in the toilet. There were always menstrual napkins and empty bags and she also showed me how to dispose of a used napkin”.

“She put secretly a little bag of napkin and an empty bag into my school bag. She told me not to pray during menstruation, so I thought it is very awful even to mention God’s name during a menstrual period”.

“My mother is great, but she sometimes seems not to be open-minded when she talks with me about personal matters. As she knows I’m afraid of disease, bleeding or something unusual, she instructs me to go to the toilet every 2 hours to renew a napkin. She also instructs me to clean the toilet seat twice (before and after using it). That is because I should not only be infected but also keep others from infection”.

“At school, no classmate talks about menstruation because talking about it is thought to be very shameful though there must be a few who have experienced their first menstruation. Once, a friend of mine had a stomachache during P.E. class and went to the toilet to find out she had her first menstruation. She began to cry. I gave her a menstrual napkin I had in my school bag and shared with her what my mother had taught me to make her at ease”.

[ Zaina is answering questions in the interview]

Wisam Al-Jumaili
Sanitary promotion coordinator

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