Srinagar: Irfana Zargar, a 28-year-old from Nowshera in Srinagar, built her ‘Eva Safety Door’ sanitary napkin kit for women availing themselves of public washrooms, by spending her life’s savings.

“‘Eva’ means ‘women’ and ‘safety door’ refers to the fact that this is a door that opens to their safety,” she explains.

On the night of March 3, Zargar purchased items like underwear, hand washes, sanitary napkins, antispasmodic drugs and sanitisers. With the intention to make washrooms more friendly to menstruating women, she left these items in the form of a kit in female public washrooms around Srinagar city.

“When I was about to return home, people were already calling me and sending messages of appreciation. The quickness with which the news spread was unexpected,” she said.

Zargar said her plan is now to cover all the public washrooms in Srinagar, and she is unlikely to rest until she is done. “I am doing this for women who will need such things in an emergency, especially women coming from the villages,” she said.

“Sometimes we don’t know and get our periods suddenly. This is an initiative that will make accessing sanitary napkins at a time when someone is in dire need easier,” she added.

It has long since been her dream to make key changes in society and people’s mindset. She believes that issues related to menstruation are still considered taboo in a society like Kashmir’s and that needs to change.

Zargar’s personal journey has been an uphill once. She was 21 years old when her father died due to a heart attack.

To support her family and assist her own education, she started working in the public grievance cell of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. It was there that she grew determined to start an initiative for the ladies and bring awareness in society at very little cost.

“There is this stigma which must be tackled and for that it is necessary to create the awareness on a larger scale,” she said. Zargar also plans to launch a cab service for ladies which will serve them whenever they need transport, free of cost.

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She has done all this without any intention to get help from the government or an NGO, Zargar said.

Zargar fears that people will accuse her of being “paid” or someone who takes money from the government. “This is very common here,” she said, but stressed that she only wanted women to support her.

Such support could come in the form of the donation of a single sanitary napkin at a time. “We usually spend a lot of money for various reasons. It will be best if women in Kashmir spend a bit on this initiative,” she said, adding that “it is completely up to them how they will want to help.”

Zargar has received many appreciative messages from women. Some men have accused her of making a thing that should be “hidden” a public aspect of women’s lives. “I want to tell those men that if, suppose, their wives or daughters get stains on their clothes and if they are in sudden trouble, will they be happy about it?” she asked.

When a girl or women gets periods, their own parents forbid them to enter into the kitchen or to serve food, she stressed. “This is not something we should be ashamed of, it is natural,” said Zargar.

Zargar borrows much of the inspiration behind the idea from her late father, who she said never shied away from raising awareness. Men, she said, should be like him.

“My father was the first man in my life who would get pads for me from shops, and I am proud of my father and I wish with this initiative I have made him proud as well,” she said.

Quratulain Rehbar is a Kashmir-based freelance journalist.