A woman who decided not to wear a tampon and run a marathon on her period ‘free flowing’ became an internet sensation. But you know who did not become an internet sensation? The winner of that marathon – Tigist Tufa.
Tigist ran 26.2 miles in 2 hours and 23 minutes, faster than what most people could go on a bicycle. She earned a platform to speak by accomplishing a feat of athleticism few human beings are capable of accomplishing.
And there’s also 26-year-old Kiran Gandhi, who urged women to embrace that time of the month, rather than hide away in shame.
Menstruation is something all women have to deal with. It’s a natural part of being a female, but for some reason, social norms say that it needs to be hidden away – in black carry bags from the chemist or code-words for that time of the month. So it’s not every day that a woman gains recognition for the act of being unashamed about being on her period.
Kiran went tampon-less for a simple reason – she’d been training hard for the marathon and didn’t want her period or an uncomfortable tampon to get in the way of being able to achieve her running goals.
The act also raised awareness for people who don’t have access to facilities like tampons and highlighted period-shaming. We applaud that.
But Tigist didn’t get the same kind of attention. She, in her own way, through immense hard work and training contributed to beating sexism by running and winning a marathon that most people of either gender, can only aspire to.
This wasn’t the first time either. She’s been winning marathons for 3 years and in the process, she has broken down numerous stereotypes of women in the world of sports and proved that anybody with a will can achieve anything they want.
We tip our hats to both these women, who in their own different ways, won our hearts and stood ‘first’ in true spirit.
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