Issuing a press release on the occasion of Girls’ Hygiene Day, October 30, UNICEF office in Afghanistan said that “some 80% girls were not allowed to attend social events such as weddings, or funerals, or going to shrines during menstruation; and that 50 per-cent girls were not aware of menstruation until first period started.”
According to UNICEF, 70 percent of Afghan girls do not take bath or shower during menstruation for fear of infertility while 50 percent of them are not aware of menstruation until first period starts.
It further states that 25 percent of the Afghan girls are reported to miss some school days due to lack of accurate information and sanitation facilities in schools.
Speaking at the event, Dr Mohammad Mirwais Balkhi, the Minister of Education said the Afghan government is committed to provide the essential facilities in schools.
“The ministry of education have already taken some measures in girls’ middle schools and have printed 110,000 menstrual hygiene management booklets in cooperation with the UNICEF,” Balkhi noted, adding that the booklets would be taught as additional subjects at schools.
Mujibul Rahman Karimi, the minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development said that the ministry has held many menstrual awareness programs for 85,000 Afghan women across the country since 2016.
On the other hand, deputy health minister, Dewa Samad stated that lack of menstrual awareness among girls have caused them depression, humiliation, disorder in pregnancy, and even infertility.
