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SUMMARY:Unlocking The Secret and Breaking The Cycle: Exploring Menstrual T
 aboos in Contemporary Jordan - Alethea Osborne – MPhil Student\, Modern 
 Middle-East Studies\, St Antony’s College
DTSTART:20160304T162000Z
DTEND:20160304T163000Z
UID:TALK64992@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Francisco Orozco
DESCRIPTION:Jordan is often characterised as a locus of calm in the Middle
  East compared to many of its neighbours. Consequently\, with the spotligh
 t focused elsewhere\, social injustice and gender inequality in Jordan is 
 commonly overlooked. This work draws from interviews carried out during Au
 gust 2015 in Jabal Al-Natheef\; a religiously conservative and economicall
 y poor area of Amman in which women typically leave school before completi
 ng education. Asking women questions about their first menstrual experienc
 es provides an insight into the private conceptions many of us hold about 
 our bodies and the stigmas attached to them. The levels of internalised se
 xism amongst Jordanian women can be illustrated by their reverence for mal
 e doctors\, and the almost ubiquitous acceptance of their natural bodily f
 unctions as dirty and shameful. An interesting paradox arises: Jordan is a
  society obsessed with reproduction\, and promotes a woman’s primary rol
 e as that of mother\, wife\, or daughter\, and yet menstruation is deeply 
 misunderstood. As a result\, menstruation can become a topic occupying wom
 en’s private preoccupation - shrouded in guilt\, shame and misinformatio
 n. Something as seemingly regular and personal as a period can in reality 
 be indicative of social\, political\, and religious conditioning which inf
 luences some of the most fundamental elements of gender and identity. 
LOCATION:Lee Hall\, Wolfson College
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