Media/Arts

Period. End of Sentence.
A film by Rayka Zehtabchi

Period. End of Sentence. is a 2018 documentary short film that all social workers concerned about global women’s rights, i.e., human rights, should see. The film follows a local group of Indian women who are persuaded by a women’s rights activist and a male entrepreneur to learn how to operate a machine that makes low-cost, biodegradable sanitary pads.

The girls and women have learned to regard menstruation as shameful, something about which to be embarrassed and to hide. Most have never heard of sanitary pads and use random cloth for absorption, and some have even stopped attending school and temple because of the high-maintenance personal hygiene menstruation requires without sanitary pads. One man interviewed for the film says that menstruation is the biggest taboo in Indian culture.

The adventurous spirit of the girls and women despite their fears of the new approach to menstruation is inspiring and a lesson for all social workers globally in recognizing that there are still millions of women everywhere who are living as oppressed, second-class citizens without rights that many of us take for granted in more industrialized regions.

— Marianne Mallon, editor

www.netflix.com/title/81074663