Facing the future: menstrual activist Kiran Gandhi
There may be more than 5,000 euphemisms for menstruation but periods have never been such big news. A Bristol company is offering “period leave”, there have been high-profile attacks on the Tampon Tax and, just over a year ago, Kiran Gandhi led the bloody charge for the front pages by deciding to ditch her tampon when she ran the London Marathon. The story and accompanying blood-stained images went global and Gandhi, an already rather extraordinary woman in her early 20s who had combined studying at Harvard Business School with being MIA’s drummer, became one of the most recognisable faces of menstrual awareness. Currently touring her new music project Madame Gandhi, Kiran told DIVA what a year riding a crimson wave of feminist activism has been like.
I was working as a consultant in the music industry after Harvard when this menstrual story went completely viral. A lot of attention was being directed at me; in fact, my website had more hits the day the story broke than any other WordPress site in 2015.