New Delhi: Every woman has to go through the pain of periods every month. It is quite normal for a woman to have periods. Women have to bear a lot of pain during periods. However, many times it happens that the woman suddenly gets periods, in such a situation, the woman gets very nervous. Such a situation becomes quite frightening for any woman. But, now something similar happened with Erin Law of Kenya.
Erin suddenly started having periods at Istanbul Airport. In such a situation, she was looking for sanitary pads at the airport. But, they did not get sanitary pads for several hours. Erin told that, at an international and luxurious airport, she had to wander hard for sanitary pads. Even people tried to take advantage of his helplessness.
Erin Law told that, “Menstruation is not a unique thing but it became a problem for me because it happened to me at Istanbul Airport. Many people can understand this situation. I started having periods at the airport and I didn’t have pads, tampons or menstrual cups. I had to take two long flights. As with everyone during periods, my clothes were getting damaged even during my periods. It was a huge airport from where I could buy a two thousand dollar bottle of wine, a drone, romantic novels and what not. I thought I would definitely find tampons or pads in terminals A, B, C, D or F. But my husband and I could not find any stores or pharmacies which was very strange because it was an international airport and such shops are usually everywhere.”
Erin Law says, “However, my husband and I were still confident that we would find some shop because many women travelers need it and such things should be done at the airport. Meanwhile, I asked a young man at a duty free store where to find a pharmacy here, to which he very rudely replied ‘No’. After that I asked her again where I could get tampons. He said it is not possible to meet here. I laughed at this and I moved on.
“My husband was in line at the information desk while I was trying to find a tampon. After that we inquired about sanitary pads and tampons there and came to know that we have to go from there to another big information desk where we can probably get vending machines. After that we ran from our gate in the opposite direction towards the desk. I realized in the meantime that maybe only pads are used in Turkey. But it was not like tampons are available in Turkey.”
She said, “Finally we reached the big info desk where a guy told me that I can make an emergency call to the pharmacy which I found very stupid because periods are quite normal, not an emergency. But I had no choice. That’s why I called. But the person on the other side of the call did not know English. On this I started speaking tampon, pad in a loud voice. During this, the lady sitting at the desk was checking whether I have called on the correct extension, while some people standing in the queue were looking at me confused.
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Erin Law says, “After this he gave the phone to the other man, after which the man told me that he could get me a tampon. Instead of understanding my situation, he was talking as if I had asked him for a cold drink. She said I can pay by card and they will reach me in 15 minutes. Our flight was already boarding and we were getting late on this my husband said don’t worry, we are good at escaping then we will reach on time. It was true but I couldn’t run because I was having periods.”
After a while a man comes in with a small plastic bag containing panty liners. I was amazed to see this. My husband thought we were done but I told my husband and the guy that I needed a tampon. Panty liners are not useful in this situation.”
Erin Law said, “After this the boy said that he can bring tampons. I felt here as if I was buying something illegal. The boy was not even in his uniform and he was saying that I would have to pay him $ 20 for this. He didn’t even take the card. After that he started looking for ATMs at the airport with us. Meanwhile, my husband started telling him that this situation must have come in front of many women at the airport, so why the arrangements were not made here, he started getting angry on such a thing.
“After this we took out money from the ATM and he left with some money. During this I was thinking whether we will miss our flight. I was also worried about this because I was wearing very light denim jeans. Eventually he came back. He gave us a pack of tampons which usually cost three dollars. But we gave him $21 instead of $20 because he said he didn’t have change. We had to leave from there. When we arrived for our flight, I was crying a lot. I was feeling both angry and embarrassed at what I went through because of my periods.”
She says, “I think I was feeling pretty silly here because it is a part of my work. I work only on the topic ‘menstruation in poverty’. My job is to reach out to those girls who do not have the items used for menstruation. We deliver those things to them so that they do not have to leave school under any circumstances. But I myself was at a luxurious airport from where I bought a magazine for $ 20 but I had nothing for my period. But at the same time it is also foolish that Turkey makes big promises to meet the needs of many people like me and me at its airport but 50 percent of the world’s population i.e. women, are not needed at its airport. . If this need is not taken care of in such a big and luxurious airport or in any small village in Africa, then it is a big problem.”
She finally slammed the Istanbul airport authorities, saying, “I would like to say here that I should not be ashamed of this, but the Istanbul airport authorities should be ashamed and fix this system. They should sell menstrual products at their airports.”