7 days confinement for reaching puberty

Lucia from Traditional Authority (T/A) Mwankhunikira in Rumphi is missing at school. Her teachers and classmates are worried. They wonder if she has moved from the village or is sick.

Two days later, the girl is still nowhere to be seen. When her fellow learners and teachers followed her to her village, they are stopped from entering her hut.

“It is not allowed,” says an old woman they meet, “Lucia is having her menses.”

After a while, they learn that when a girl reaches puberty, she is supposed to stay in the house for seven days. In addition, she is not allowed to talk to men.

Funny Chirwa, a volunteer at Ntchuka Village Development Committee (VDC)  under Mphompha Area Development Committee (ADC) says this is one of several outdated cultural practices they are trying to eradicate in the area.

She says: “We believe that it should not be a punishment to reach puberty. Why should girls be locked in the house for seven days when others are moving freely?

“Then there is the issue of education. School-going girls are not supposed to miss classes. How do you explain the situation where boys are learning while girls are locked in their huts? What hurts most is that even male teachers cannot approach them to give part-time lessons.”

The poor treatment girls go through when they reach puberty adds to a myriad of challenges girls go through in their quest to complete their education.

According to the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey of 2015, one in every three girls falls pregnant by their 19th birthday.

Poverty is another factor that undermines girls’ education. The National Statistical Office estimates that half of Malawi’s population of 19 million lives below the poverty line, with one in four people living in extreme poverty..

Another volunteer from the area, Rinesi Lungu, says they are also trying to change the cultural beliefs surrounding birth. Traditionally, women in the area who have just given birth are not allowed to change their clothes until their next period.

“In addition to that, she was not supposed to cook or add salt to relish. Imagine, she is hungry but cannot cook. Should she stay hungry?”  she asks.

Chirwa, however, says with intense education and consultations with traditional leaders and other stakeholders, some cultural practices that undermine people’s rights are ending in the area.

Village head Chapweteka conceded that girls experience a tough time. She said the practice has many harmful side effects on women, but there was nothing people could do because it was their culture.

She says: “The belief was that when a girl starts menstruating, she is dirty, therefore, not fit to stay with people or cook. But with a lot of lobbying from people and organisations, things have changed and girls no longer stay indoors  for seven days.

“I am talking about my area where I understood people’s concerns and decided to act. I cannot speak for other villages.”

However, Khumbo Matchere, a volunteer from Usowoya VDC says there is resistance to end such cultural practices in some areas.

She says some leaders have issued an ultimatum, saying that people who are not comfortable with their traditions and cultural practices should leave their villages.

“There is more work to be done because there is too much resistance when it comes to mindset change. We need to put in more efforts to ensure that local leaders and elders understand the negative effects some cultural practices have on some people, especially girls,” says Matchere.

Two organisations, Centre for Civil Society Strengthening (CCSS) and God Cares Rights Foundation are working to ensure that negative cultural practices are eradicated in T/A Mwankhunikira in Rumphi.

With funding from UN Women through the Women Peace and Humanitarian Fund, the two organisations are implementing a project called Gender Sensitive Solution in Security and Humanitarian Response for women and girls in the area.

CCSS executive director Viwemi Chavula says they are in the area implementing the project because of prevailing norms, beliefs and assumptions about gender roles, security and reproduction as well as unequal power relations between men and women.

He says: “There is an unequal distribution of resources, power, wealth and norms which sustain inequality and frustrate them [women and girls] from not only taking  up leadership roles in society but also deal with cultural practices that affect them.

“We want to empower women’s rights groups, autonomous social movements and relevant civil society organisations, including those representing the youth and groups facing intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalisation of girls and women so they know their rights.”