i didn't know a thing about this practice

i knew about the practice of ostracizing menstruating women (from the house, from their families, from their husbands, etc. several cultures practice this. several cultures think women are "UNCLEAN". i'm not just talking rural third world countries either. i'm talking right here right now. second class citizens - that is if we make it to the level of citizen at all)

and oh by the way, we are your sisters, your wives, your neighbors, your aunts, your friends. WE ARE NOT UNCLEAN because we are able to give birth

Nepal's 'confined women' want change
By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Dadeldhura, western Nepal
In the darkness, a 10-day-old baby boy wails.

It is midday, but the infant has not been allowed out of this special room, separate from the rest of the house, since being brought home after birth.

Only his young mother, Basanti Devi Bhul, can touch him.

She goes out a little but cannot touch anybody else because until the 11th day after the birth, society considers her to be unclean.

"I'm not doing any work," she tells the BBC.

"I just eat dry bread, green vegetables and rice - no lentils or meat. I can't touch any pots or pans or go into the main house. I just go out to wash myself and my clothes, that's all."

This practice of confinement, known as chhaupadi, extends also to women during their monthly period.

Some sort of confinement during menstruation is common in this and other societies. But here in western Nepal it takes extreme forms, with a woman sometimes restricted to a dirty cow-shed or other special huts. .........

picture from the bbc: Besanti Devi's confinement shed is airless and dark