As we discussed back in January, Meghan Markle was briefly parted from her lover Prince Harry for about five days. She traveled to India as part of work with WorldVision and it’s “Rise Up Daughters of India” initiative focusing on the health, wellness and education of girls. As I learned in January, one of the big focuses of Markle’s trip was menstruation education, as in… girls in many developing countries face huge educational disadvantages when they begin to menstruate, because menstruation is still stigmatized in many countries, and many girls and women don’t have access to tampons and sanitary pads.

Well, Meghan decided to draw even more attention to the issue in this week’s Time Magazine. Time published an essay called “Meghan Markle: How Periods Affect Potential.” I guess Time couldn’t just call it “How Periods Affect Potential.” What would be the point of that??? No, we have to know that a prince’s girlfriend wrote this! You can read the full essay here. Here’s the first part:

Imagine a world where the female leaders we revere never achieved their full potential because they dropped out of school at the age of thirteen. In the Western world this is challenging to fathom, but for millions of young women globally, this remains their harsh reality for a staggering reason. From sub-Saharan Africa to India, Iran, and several other countries, the stigma surrounding menstruation and lack of access to proper sanitation directly inhibit young women from pursuing an education.

Based on societal ignominy in the developing world, shame surrounding menstruation and its direct barrier to girls education remains a hushed conversation. As a result, both household dialogue and policy making discussions often leave Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) off the table. Former First Lady Michelle Obama spoke directly about this subject at the World Bank in April 2016, and various NGOs actively seek out policy reform and programming to address this concern, yet the topic remains neglected.

I traveled to Delhi and Mumbai this January with World Vision to meet girls and women directly impacted by the stigmatization of menstrual health and to learn how it hinders girls’ education. One hundred and thirteen million adolescent girls between the ages of 12-14 in India alone are at risk of dropping out of school because of the stigma surrounding menstrual health. During my time in the field, many girls shared that they feel embarrassed to go to school during their periods, ill equipped with rags instead of pads, unable to participate in sports, and without bathrooms available to care for themselves, they often opt to drop out of school entirely. Furthermore, with minimal dialogue about menstrual health hygiene either at school or home due to the taboo nature of the subject, many girls believe their bodies are purging evil spirits, or that they are injured once a month; this is a shame-filled reality they quietly endure. All of these factors perpetuate the cycle of poverty and stunt a young girl’s dream for a more prolific future.

[From Time]

As I said in January, I admire her for taking up this cause. Even in Western society, there are well-documented stigmas with discussing the nitty-gritty of menstruation, not to mention the fundamental inequality of the cost burden falling on women. Menstruation cuts to the heart of the pink tax in Western society, but that is literally a first-world problem compared to the stigma, shame and misinformation about menstruation in developing nations, where your period can literally signal the end of your education. I applaud Meghan for taking on this issue and I wish that – cough – other royal women would too.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and PCN.