The recent Budget 2022 announcement included an allocation for the distribution of free personal hygiene kits every month to about 130,000 teenage girls from B40 families. This is a step towards tackling the serious and heavy issue of period poverty, which, together with menstrual health, have been taboo topics in our society. Why is it important to have open conversations about periods and period poverty, and thus the impact on girls and women from underprivileged communities? We discuss with Asst Prof Dr Fatimah Al-Attas, sociologist from IIUM and Anja Juliah Abu Bakar, founder of Athena Empowers.

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