What happens if we look at menstruating women with a conservatively religious eye?
In this post we will introduce the period in different religions to you.
The oldest religion we know is Judaism.
According to Judaism, marriage between a man and a woman is like a temple whose holiness must be respected. However, what happens when the Jewish woman menstruates? According to the Jewish law, she has to be viewed as ritually segregated (“nidda”) for the time being.
What are the consequences for a married couple then? Husband and wife can be in the same room, but there are rules of conduct for both: the couple is not allowed to touch each other or sleep in the same bed. If this would happen, the husband too, would be considered as “unclean”.
Once the woman’s menstruation cycle is over, she has to go over into the purification phase; seven days are counted as the “seven pure days”. Afterwards the woman is allowed to join her husband into the “Mikva” as she is now considered to be clean and pure again.
Let’s have a look at Christianity. In the early middle ages, religious teachings and medical knowledge were mainly written down and preserved by the monasteries, in which the monks always associated sexuality with sin and impurity. For this reason, menstruation was considered God’s punishment for Eve’s sinners.
Theologians declared that only the “Mother of God” was an exception to this as she never menstruated. This is why the menstruating woman is considered to be unclean and is not allowed to attend church services during that time.
This description is similar to an ancient myth of the Islam, which says that women are dirty and unclean during their menstruation. Therefore, Muslim women are not allowed to pray, fast, read in the Koran, visit the mosque or have sexual relations during their period.
One wouldn’t think that menstruation unites the religions, but in a sense it does.
Eine Antwort