It Is Time for the Girl to Know...

The ignorant girl is more liable to throw herself into the arms of evil and vice than the girl whose eyes have been opened to the landmarks of life.

If I were asked the fundamental reason for the backwardness of the Eastern woman, I would answer at once: it is ignorance.

The Eastern daughter does not become acquainted with all sides of life as the young man does. Even the receptive circles that permit the girl's education have contented themselves with a few lessons stuffed with theories, leaving the daughter with her eyes closed to the facts of practical life.

It is certainly necessary for the girl to learn arithmetic, geography, philosophy, history, poetry, and the arts; but it is also necessary that she know something of her role in life and of the duties that await her, and of the changes that will come upon her — whether in her psychological state, in her natural powers, or in her marital relations and ties — so that she may not one day collide with disturbing surprises that may form a nightmare pressing heavily upon her being and upon her bodily and mental powers.

Eastern teaching and culture deprive girls of the study of their natural constitution. This deprivation belongs to the practice of screening her eyes from everything that has to do with her private and sexual life, in the belief that the natural and sexual developments in the girl must remain unknown and neglected by her, lest attention to them lead to arousing the girl's desire and longing.

They want to safeguard honor. And their method rests on casting the girl into the darkness of ignorance. Had they any sense, they would realize that no danger threatens honor like the danger of ignorance.

A glance at reality shows us that the ignorant girl is more liable to throw herself into the arms of evil and vice than the girl whose eyes have been opened to the landmarks of life, the developments of sex, and the requirements of the contingencies that come upon her as she grows year by year. The girl, then, must become well acquainted with the characteristics of her sex; her family must teach her the difference between herself and her brother the boy; and her teachers must show her the truth of the life that awaits her and how she is to receive the surprises that will befall her, so that these do not come as a shock upon their appearance and a matter of bewilderment she cannot understand. If she comprehends these things, her comprehension will help her to avoid a harm whose blow falls harder upon her and upon her family than any danger they fear.

The girl must know her body, its characteristics, and all the stages of her life, so that she may steer herself along the straight path instead of leaving it to the fates to steer her without guidance or knowledge.

The girl, whatever her age, knows as the boy knows that nature gave her an eye to see, a mouth to eat, a tongue to speak, an ear to hear, and a stomach to digest. Why then do we want her ignorant of the existence of the womb, the ovary, and the vagina, and of the purpose of these organs in her body? And why should this information remain a secret from her, so that its contingencies take her by surprise and leave an unwanted mark upon her?

A lady told me one day that her daughter of twelve rose from her bed in the morning terrified, having seen her nightgown stained with a spot of blood; the evening before she had felt a slight pain low in her abdomen. When she ran to her mother, fear having taken full hold of her, the mother began telling her tales, trying to make her believe it was a passing symptom that would soon vanish — perhaps caused by a sparrow that had crept in on her while she slept and pecked her on the upper thigh, drawing blood. The mother tried to reassure her daughter with talk containing every kind of evasion and explanation except the truth. This woman, and many others like her, even from the distinguished social classes, set their minds afire inventing the strangest lies to camouflage the truth from their daughters at this juncture. These mothers, having failed to teach their daughters what would one day happen to them, must at the very least make them understand, when the phenomenon appears, what it is and what it means, where the blood comes from, and how it should be regarded. Instead of the mother deceiving her daughter by peddling the story of the sparrow that crept in by night and pecked her on the upper thigh, or other such delusions, she must inform her that this phenomenon is the sign of the ovary's ripening and maturing and of the beginning of the reproductive function upon which the future of her life depends, without which she would not be a female in the full sense; and that the girl to whom this event — called menstruation, or the monthly period — does not happen is abnormal, or afflicted with a congenital defect, deprived of woman's distinguishing qualities, and will never be a mother.

Motherhood is the girl's direction of prayer and an instinctive aim in the little girl. Do you not see her with her doll, how she devotes herself to its care, taking it for a daughter of whom she is the tender mother? I know no meaning in keeping everything within the reproductive sphere a secret to be neglected, passed over, and never inquired into by the girl.

The daughter reaches her tenth year — sometimes she reaches the age of puberty — still ignorant of where she came from and how she was born. And if her knowledge stretches so far that she grasps her mother's part in bringing her into being, she remains ignorant of her father's part. They fear the shame of knowing a thing, and do not fear the shame that arises from ignorance of it. It is a scandalous ignorance — indeed a criminal ignorance on the part of the parents, and especially of the mother who has neglected to teach her daughter what she ought to make her understand, so that contingencies do not strike her and affect her body and her mind in ways she does not wish, and which her ignorant mother does not wish for her either.

Then the girl grows and reaches, say, the age of fifteen, and begins to feel a development in her nature, her inclinations, and her charms. She feels psychological stirrings she never felt before, and takes them for a shiver when she talks to young men. She may be unable to explain these feelings, so she hides them from her mother and from those closest to her, out of bashfulness and shame — always shame — but this concealment does not prevent these feelings from following one upon another and repeating themselves. And the ignorant, responsive daughter very often becomes entangled, out of ignorance, in surrendering to pitfalls into which these growing impulses push her, with the encouragement of the sons of evil. Is it not better for the girl to understand these inner feelings, so that she may know how to ward off their dangers?

The period through which the girl passes at the age of twelve or thirteen is the most important period of her life. The change that comes over her body and her nature has an immense effect upon the whole of her being.

The girl has entered the age of puberty, or adolescence. She is now a female in the fullest sense. Her formation is complete, her bosom has filled out, her psyche has developed, and she has begun to feel an alteration in her nature and her feelings. She is no longer a child amusing herself at play, caring for nothing in life but what her childish inclinations demand. In the depths of her soul are feelings and inclinations she never felt before. She has become bashful before her young companion; and despite this bashfulness she feels a special desire for his company. Whereas before, his regard did not matter to her and his attentions did not move her, now her one concern is to win a place in his admiration. And if she feels she has, she is content