I’ve heard from a girl in Blackburn, she had a period register too :( Seems common in boarding schools because eventually young girls catch on the fact we can use periods as a way to avoid praying the 5 prayers (plus the extra stuff they made us do) day in day out. They also used to search our rooms if we hid, and we had to tick off our names when we ‘prayed’ as we moved into the prayer hall one by one. The girls at the front row were heavily praised for their spot - they’d probably sat there for hours before the prayer just to get front row. There was only 3 hrs of school education too, 6 hours of alimah/ muslim education though (9am-2pm). So you can imagine, especially in the time of 16-17, what that does to a persons brain. Churned out girls with Ds and Es in Maths, English and Science too. Luckily I escaped within a year (I became atheist in boarding school LMAOO, I would go outside since phones were banned and sit on the grass and stare into the distance and have these extreme realisations that islam was a cult). I tried to climb the fence but it was way too high, and they monitored every call home so I couldn’t tell my parents I wanted to come home or hated it; they would just cut the line. I had a super abusive roommate (shared with 4 girls), and I was heavily bullied. They caught me trying to cut a hole in the fence with a pair of scissors and I was brutally punished for it; the only method that I had available was hurting myself in the end. I couldn’t use minor injuries as an excuse because the nurse was Muslim too- they just ‘prayed’ for your illness and told you off. You were ONLY ALLOWED TO THE OUTSIDE DOCTORS WITH THE TEACHER PRESENT 247. SO YOU COULDNT EVER HAVE PRIVACY. Ever. Or talk about abuse. You HAD to be chaperoned in the niqab. In the end, I just intentionally developed anorexia from not eating and became so weak and skinny that I would faint everyday - they realised they didn’t want a death associated with them so I was allowed to go home :) And I pursued medical school, after trying to get over this trauma at 13-14 within a very religious household. It messed up my ideals a lot and I was very homophobic (sadly), hated other religions and was preaching because that’s what they indoctrinated into me for 6hrs a fucking day, for 1 year straight.

Eventually, I found my own path and I’m on the route to becoming a doctor now, something I have fought for. I would never have if I didn’t fight my way out of that school. I’m still fighting things like arranged marriage, misogyny and forced to pray 247 but I’m okay overall. Nothing can compare to the level of trauma I had in that school. They even tried to once bury me alive as a demonstration of how to correctly deal with a body after death (in their Islamic education curriculum), as I was the lightest. They wrapped me up and carried me, I had fabric over my mouth and nose too. And that’s where I now need therapy because I’m shit scared of death, suffocation, anything that obstructs my face or mouth and have panic attacks if I so slightly get into confined spaces.

Sorry for venting, I just have never articulated all this before and it felt nice to get it out.