While growing up in Kenya, I was cautioned by my mother not to touch the curry plant when on my period. She left me with the impression that something in my body would contaminate the plant, prompting a feeling of deep self-revulsion.

One afternoon, when I was on my period and alone, I went into the garden and touched the curry plant. Nothing happened – not even when I pressed the leaf between my palms and stroked the branches. I monitored the plant, and after a week, I told my mother that she had been mistaken: there was nothing noxious in my body.

She replied, I was lucky the plant hadn’t died, and to never do it again because it would the next time. Later, I learnt that this was a common Kenyan-Asian belief.

Across South Asia, menstruating women face restrictions on their movement, c

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