Do not tax menstrual pads as luxurious items, says activist : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3607x2705+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Faf%2F0c%2F559b27f649d28ee2b80ccbb6a37c%2Fbushra-mahnoor-portrait-master-2.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3607x2705+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Faf%2F0c%2F559b27f649d28ee2b80ccbb6a37c%2Fbushra-mahnoor-portrait-master-2.jpg" class="img" alt="Bushra Mahnoor at home in Attock, Pakistan," fetchpriority="high"/> Bushra Mahnoor, photographed at house in Attock, Pakistan, advocates for the menstrual well being of women in Pakistan. "It was a giant taboo mentioning that you simply have been in your interval. However mentioning that you simply have been in your interval with out entry to a pad was simply much more humiliating," she says. Her non-profit Mahwari Justice final 12 months filed a lawsuit to reclassify menstrual merchandise as important items. Presently, menstrual pads are taxed as luxurious merchandise. Ben de la Cruz/NPR disguise caption

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Ben de la Cruz/NPR Rising up, Bushra Mahnoor dreaded getting her interval. It meant disgrace, stigma and, usually, lacking college.

As an adolescent in Pakistan with 4 sisters, she says there have been by no means sufficient interval provides in her house. They'd ration pads — recurrently utilizing ones designed for eight hours for nicely over 24 hours — and generally that they had to make use of a rag or a spare material that would simply leak. Others face the same scenario. In response to a report from UNICEF, revealed in 2025, solely about one in 10 women and girls in Pakistan use commercially manufactured merchandise.

"Once I knew I may not have a pad and I needed to depend on a material, these have been the occasions I couldn't even think about going to the college," Mahnoor recollects, who's now 25.

Her college uniform was pure white and he or she remembers a trainer ordering a classmate to face by the again wall of the classroom so others would not see a interval stain on her uniform.

"It was a giant taboo mentioning that you simply have been in your interval. However mentioning that you simply have been in your interval with out entry to a pad was simply much more humiliating," she says.

So Mahnoor grew to become a professional at arising with excuses to remain house: A imprecise sickness. A abdomen ache.

"I grew up with numerous disgrace," she says.

Now Mahnoor is making an attempt to vary the fact for women in Pakistan. She's the manager director at Mahwari Justice, a nonprofit in Pakistan that advocates for menstrual well being. In September 2025, she filed a lawsuit aimed toward reclassifying menstrual merchandise from luxurious merchandise to important items. The purpose is to eradicate the taxes positioned on the merchandise — which she hopes will decrease costs to make sanitary gadgets extra inexpensive.

None of Mahnoor's expertise comes as a shock to Marni Sommer, a professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia College's Mailman Faculty of Public Well being who has been learning menstrual well being for greater than 20 years.

"Accessing [menstrual] merchandise is a matter just about in all places," she says.

Traditionally, she says this challenge has slipped between the cracks of worldwide well being and improvement efforts as a result of it doesn't fall neatly into one of many focus areas like training, water sanitation, gender and well being and since it is a matter that is usually stigmatized. "It is everyone's and no one's on the identical time," Sommer says. "That has made it fairly troublesome to get funding and assets, as a result of it is like: The place does it belong? And who ought to fund it?"

Nevertheless, previously 5 years, Emily Cruz — who works on menstrual well being for the nonprofit Splash — says there's been extra consideration on the problem and alter in particular person international locations, "notably within the final 5 years, to take away these several types of taxes and import duties." For instance, in Malawi, female sanctuary merchandise have been reclassified as important items moderately than luxurious items. And Ethiopia has seen the surtax and import duties on merchandise eliminated.

In Pakistan, the UNICEF report says there isn't a nationwide coverage, plan or technique for menstrual well being and hygiene. NPR spoke with Mahnoor to be taught extra about her work within the nation, her private expertise and the experiences of different Pakistani ladies.

The interview has been edited for readability and size. NPR reached out to Pakistani officers on the Ministry of Nationwide Well being Providers, Regulation and Coordination and the Ministry of Legislation and Justice for remark however didn't obtain a reply.

How did you come to care about this challenge?

Once I had my preliminary interval — I used to be simply 10 years of age at the moment — and I used to be given a pad to make use of, and I didn't know learn how to use it. I caught it the wrong way up, so the sticky floor was touching my physique, and it was itching me the entire day. I saved utilizing pads that approach. I didn't know, and naturally, could not ask anyone.

I've seen numerous moms that, even after their daughters get their interval, they ask them to behave like they have not — [in Islam] it is forbidden to wish 5 occasions a day if you're in your interval however they ask their daughters to fake to wish in order that the lads within the household, particularly the husband or the brothers of that youngster, will not know that she is of fertile age now. As a result of as quickly as they know that the lady has began menstruating, they will pull her out of the college, if she goes there, and they will marry her off to a person double or thrice her age. And that's one thing we now have seen so usually. It simply breaks my coronary heart. Moms are normally very helpless in these conditions. The hyperlink to youngster marriage contributes to the secrecy round intervals and makes it an especially isolating expertise.

No person was forcing my mom to do [child marriage] however, there was nonetheless this secrecy. I keep in mind I used to be informed to even disguise it from my siblings, my sisters, and anyone else in the home.

What made you turn out to be vocal about menstrual well being?

In 2022, after I was in faculty, we had large floods that drowned a 3rd of our nation. One thing that [some friends and I] noticed was that interval wants are being uncared for, left and proper. [The neglect is not new but] the aid efforts ignored interval wants. And we began campaigning by social media.

We realized that there was numerous backlash to speaking about intervals brazenly, and that shifted our focus and made us understand that we now have the facility to mobilize funds and actively do one thing on our personal, on the bottom.

I went to Balochistan with the medical crew — I simply hitched a journey with them — and I used to be giving out pads. I met individuals who have been residing in a aid camp, and so they had one rag and the sisters would use that rag interchangeably. They'd wash it within the flood water and provides it to the opposite sister to make use of. That shook me to the core.

What do ladies do once they haven't got entry to pads?

The most typical methodology — that I've additionally used quite a bit — is to make use of a cotton pad. So that you simply take a chunk of material and [make it into a pouch, then] you stuff cotton inside it. The primary drawback with that's that if you wash it you can't dry it out within the daylight [which is a natural disinfectant], as a result of then everyone would know that you simply have been menstruating and there's a large stigma. So what individuals do is that they dry it contained in the rooms [and] that may result in numerous bacterial development inside it as a result of it can't be absolutely dried. This may trigger [vaginal problems, including irritation and reproductive tract infections].

Lots of people can't even afford that cotton to place inside the material, so they simply wrap the material a number of occasions or generally individuals stuff the material with mud or sand to make it absorbent. That's one thing they do in numerous tribal areas.

Different individuals have stated to us: We do not even put on panties, are you able to give us waist bands? It is like an elastic band that may be tied round their waist to allow them to take a chunk of material and use that for his or her interval.

Inform us concerning the lawsuit you are championing.

Like many international locations on this planet, Pakistan imposes a luxurious tax on interval merchandise. They are not taxed as regular gross sales gadgets and so they're not given the exemption of important gadgets.

We now have a bit in our Structure — it is referred to as Article Six — that offers an exemption to numerous merchandise which are thought-about important gadgets, like medical provides and, for the cattle trade, cattle semen is taken into account important — and interval merchandise are usually not. As an alternative, there's nearly 40% of tax on pads.

So what the lawsuit does is de facto easy: The lawsuit is difficult the truth that interval merchandise are taxed as luxurious gadgets. It is saying this tax is discriminatory as a result of largely the lads are usually not utilizing them, so it places an unfair burden on ladies and the individuals who can't afford it. We need to see the taxes eliminated and the merchandise labeled as important gadgets.

It was filed in September. However due to the unstable political and judicial nature of our nation, we're ready to obtain a listening to date to proceed. However on the identical time, we're bracing ourselves for a really lengthy battle. In Nepal, they simply removed this tax nevertheless it took them 4 years.

If the lawsuit succeeds, what would occur? Are you optimistic?

We're being practical additionally as a result of it would not routinely make interval merchandise cheaper. So when India removed this tax in 2019, there are research that point out that interval merchandise did not find yourself changing into cheaper. So we aren't pondering of an instantaneous large discount within the worth, however it should create some extent of affect we hope, and it'll even have symbolic worth.