This past Tues., Oct. 29, from 5 p.m.-6 p.m., the Honoring, Uniting, & Building (HUB) Multicultural Center at Sonoma State University planned on hosting a Social Justice Documentary Series, where they were going to show the documentary “Period. End of Sentence.” The documentary focuses on women empowerment as well as the right of women having access to hygiene products in India, as well as providing students with the opportunity to view social justice from a completely different lense.
The HUB, located on the second floor of the Student Center directly across from Student Activities, is a place of inclusivity. As they work to transform the dynamics that alienate, disempower, degrade, and destroy, they simultaneously work to create connectivity and understanding among all cultures and people. The HUB encourages all students to make extreme efforts to practice compassion and aid in others’ healing and personal journey.
Throughout the span of an hour, students attending this event would have been able to both watch and learn. The evening was planned to start with a quick showing of the film, which is approximately 26 minutes long. Right after the viewing, students and those running the program were given the option to engage in a 20 minute dialogue, where they were given the opportunity to reflect and share their thoughts and feelings towards the documentary.
“Period. End of Sentence.” is a 2018 Oscar winning documentary short film, directed by Rayka Zehtabchi and produced by Garrett Schiff. The documentary focuses on a group of Indian women leading a sexual revolution in India. These women quietly make it a mission to not only create their own period pads, but to also make menstrual cycles more apart of the conversation. Because the stigma surrounding periods in rural India is still so prevalent, these women are making extreme efforts to create a change.
Ruby Schiff, daughter of the producer and co-founder of The Pad Project, speaks about her experience.
“After co-founding The Pad Project with my high school english teacher and best friends, we had no idea how far this project would go,” said Schiff. “It’s crazy to think that Tuesday lunch meetings strategizing how to fundraise to send a pad machine to our partner school turned into us ultimately deciding to make an awareness documentary on the stigma of menstruation which not only won an academy award, but kick started a global period movement. I’m beyond proud to be a founding member of our non-profit and to have gotten to opportunity to executive produce ‘Period. End of Sentence’. What began as ‘we need to get these girls back in school’ became so much more. The success of this project is a testament to the strength, courage, hard work, and brilliance of the women in Hapur.”
Kira Smith, senior Hutchins Liberal Arts major at Sonoma State, explains why this topic is so important to her. “Globally equal access to feminine hygiene products is a basic human right that every woman deserves and requires, just as everyone deserves and requires food and water to survive,” said Smith. “Denying these simple products is ethically unjust, especially if the ones denying this right to equal access do not have any use for these products themselves and therefore cannot understand just how important they are.”
Along with not receiving the proper resources in order to meet their needs, the women of rural India also associate their periods with shame, feeling the need to miss school or even miss out on simple daily activities because of it.
Third year student, Becca DeMent, Philosophy pre-Law major with a minor in Business, shares her thoughts on this.
“Periods are natural, healthy and beautiful. It is a sign that my body is working and doing what it’s naturally supposed to do. Girls need to understand this about themselves, and boys need to understand it about their mothers, sisters, friends and their very own beginnings.”
Students who planned to attend this documentary series were given the chance to open their eyes to realities other than their own and to really dig deeper to find out more about social justice issues occurring all over the world.
