Recommending talking about endometriosis and specifically about Muslim women seems a bit strange since endometriosis awareness concerns everyone.
However, there are specificities related to beliefs within Muslim communities that need to be addressed.
Here are 5 reasons for discussing endometriosis and Muslim women in particular.
1 # A disease that does not discriminate
Endometriosis doesn’t care about skin colour, religion, political convictions, and social conditions. Endometriosis doesn’t care about a woman’s type of religious practice and how she dresses on a daily basis.
Endometriosis is a complex disease that affects about 10% of women and girls of reproductive age worldwide, or 190 million people, according to the World Health Organization.
2 # Endometriosis a debilitating disease that questions Muslim women about their religious practices
Endometriosis, a complex chronic disease with symptoms that vary from woman to woman, causes some women to experience severe pain followed by fainting . Some mothers have described pain worse than that felt during childbirth, while others are unable to go to work. Periods can last a long time with heavy bleeding.
The position of many Muslim theologians holds that a woman can resume her religious pratice such as performing the five daily prayers or touching the Quran if her period exceeds ten to fifteen days. Indeed, in the most widely followed tradition among Muslims, a woman ceases her religious obligations for the duration of her period.
However, when menstruation is abundant and painful, performing prayers is inconceivable.
This disease therefore raises questions about the obligation or not of prayer in certain cases and/or its adjustment.
3 # A taboo subject leading to worsening of the condition
Endometriosis affects a large number of young girls and women, yet it is only in recent years that the disease has come out of the shadow.
The taboo surrounding menstruation surely has something to do with it. In many communities around the world, menstruation is considered a shameful subject, to the point where the pain is experienced with clenched teeth.
Recent campaigns, particularly in France, stress the abnormality of pain during periods.
The trivialization of pain during menstruation has certainly led women to consult late and obtain an even later diagnosis than average.
Some women report years of medical wandering even though they reported their pain as early as adolescence. This gives time for the disease to progress.
4 # Leading cause of infertility in women
In some cases, this disease causes infertility. Endometriosis is the leading cause of infertility in women.
An infertility at the origin of the status of childless women by circumstance.
5 # Confusion with an occult evil
Unfortunately, in some communities, beliefs suggest that long, heavy, painful periods are the result of an occult evil. On the other hand, it was religiously established centuries ago that menstruation that lasts more than ten days were the results of a discharge linked to an illness.
In my teenage years, Muslim literature available in Islamic shops did not hesitate to describe these discharges as the effect of the devil acting in the womb.
Myths die hard and are passed down from generation to generation.
This type of belief can lead some parents and women to turn to a healer or a cleric to read Quranic verses instead of consulting a gynaecologist.
For more information on endometriosis, I recommend the following sites:
The Pan African Society of Endometriosis
Endometriosis Foundation of America
© Photo credit – Pexels
Original Text L’endométriose et les musulmans : 5 raisons d’en parler
Translation by Discussions Essentielles and Deep L
About the author
I am a French Muslim author with a passion for Islam. I studied Islam in a traditional and academic setting. My interest in the subjects of childlessness began over 10 years ago.
DISCUSSIONS ESSENTIELLES 