Over the past years, feminist movements have gained public attention due to the rise in female empowerment from society and social media platforms. The young minds at ISB are encouraged to raise awareness on societal issues such as food waste, domestic violence, gender alliance, and of course women empowerment through clubs like HER Period Dignity and PAVED.
The HER Period Dignity club is a non-profit organization that aims to encourage female empowerment through period product research and development and advocacy for period poverty and the rights of menstruation. The HER Period Dignity has expanded its chain through collaboration with international schools such as ISB, St.Andrews, BPS, and Nist. Recently, sanitary pads have been installed in two of the high school female bathrooms, which was part of a project that the HER Period club has been working to implement. Mr. Hansberry, a teacher who has been at ISB for a long time, says, “ the vending machine for pads in the bathroom was installed in 2015, and it has only been announced this year to stop charging.” Menstruating is a natural process that women cannot control; therefore, some students question why pads should be charged in the first place. Even when the vending machines were available, students were not willing to pay, and they either went to the nurse or asked their friends. The idea of providing pads for free has been in the making for a long time, because of the assumption that students can either bring their own pads or pay for their own.
The idea of providing pads for free has been in the making for a long time, because of the assumption that students can either bring their own pads or pay for their own. Minin Hetrakul, the president of HER Period Dignity, shared her opinion about the slow process of approval at ISB: “the other reason why the implementation took a long time is due to the stigma around period, people think it’s quite dirty, also the admin probably believe that people here are quite privileged so they could provide their own menstrual products so we kind have to debunk that belief.” She says the HER Period Dignity club is planning to expand its project by providing free pads to middle school bathrooms as well as providing tampons as an additional option. Esin Seyhan, an eleventh-grade student at ISB, says, “They start putting pads in the bathroom which is nice, but I think they should put more to the other ones so that it is convenient for women around the campus.” The female students at ISB are comfortable talking about and advocating for women’s rights which are sometimes considered taboo, and students take more initiative on their projects while teachers supervise.
ISB also raises awareness about other topics involving issues that women face, such as PAVED. The aim of PAVED is to spread awareness about topics such as sexual assault and domestic violence, as well as destigmatize conversations surroundings sexual assault and domestic violence. Ashley Vitayatanagorn, creative director of PAVED, says “We also want to be able to create a safe space for those who are victims of such violence, and obviously we don’t want to force people to talk about their experienced because it can be personal but we want people to feel like they can feel comfortable and safe if they do want to talk about their experiences with someone.” Jokes can be sensitive, especially with those who have been a victim and are at risk of being a victim. “There has been an issue before at ISB where people make jokes about rape and sensitive topics which is obviously not acceptable.” Ashley adds, “I think ISB does a good job encouraging women empowerment. We tend to look down on victims of sexual assault and blame them, such as how they are wearing certain clothing or behaving a certain. Women want to be able to present themselves how they are without having people sexualize them.”
Over the last two years, ISB has created more initiatives in order to prioritize the concerns that female students have. Clubs such as HER Period Dignity and PAVED have created a safe place for students to be comfortable about sharing their experiences.