For a few months now, Afifa has been consciously cutting plastic out of her life and becoming more environmentally aware. Not surprisingly, there were some roadblocks, one of the biggest of which was her lifeline for five days every month — sanitary napkins.
Three months ago, the entrepreneur was scrolling through Instagram when she came across an advertisement for something rather strange — a menstrual cup. She thought this could be the answer to her plastic roadblock and immediately placed an order.
“I thought it was something that would work. I’d been cutting out plastic and anything biodegradable anyway so why not give it a try,” she says talking to Dawn. “I wish it had come into my life 10 years ago,” she adds.
“For decades women have been using cloth, cotton and variations of the two to soak up their monthly cycle, the cup has been like a revolution for women,” says a woman from Karachi who uses the DivaCup, a foreign brand, which costs around Rs5,000.
“In Pakistan, going into a grocery store to buy a packet of sanitary pads or tampons is nothing less than a public shaming — it has to be wrapped in a paper bag before it makes it to the counter and double wrapped when you take it home,” she says.
Ramsha, a teacher, shares a similar experience. “I wanted a menstrual cup and was planning on asking a cousin to bring it from abroad but then I came across Recircle.life, a company based in Lahore that makes menstrual cups,” she says.
“I first came across menstrual cups while I was living in a tree house in Laos. I was travelling for work with 10 other people when I got my period — and no one had pads as everyone was using menstrual cups,” she says.
According to Ramsha, using the cup has been convenient and clean. “I was worried about using it at first but I called one of the company’s co-founders and watched Youtube videos,” she says.
Her mother, however, doesn’t know that she uses a cup. Nor do other women in her family. “I don’t know how they would react as there are a lot of misconceptions about it especially with concerns to a girl’s virginity etc. When I told my friends at work, initially they were not very encouraging but now they are also using it,” she adds.