To ask if it's "culturally insensitive" to send tampons to the women in refugee camps?

[SansaryaAgain]

I didn't think it would be but a woman at work sent out an email to say she's driving to Calais in a few weeks time to take supplies to the Syrian refugees in the camps there, and would we all like to contribute something. A colleague and I thought that the women there would appreciate being sent sanitary products so suggested we send tampons (yes, I know Mooncups are better for the environment but I can buy several boxes of tampons for the price of one Mooncup!) and pads.

But when we told this to the woman doing the drive over she said that under no circumstances could we send tampons as that was "culturally insensitive" of us! Now I knew some very Catholic girls back in the day who refused to use tampons so perhaps very strict Muslim women are the same, but Syria is not Saudi Arabia. Surely there would be some women there who would use tampons?

AIBU to think that Driving Woman is being a bit OTT?

And I forgot how helpful this county is being to those fleeing conflict in Syria - 216 refugees, just so that people like you shabby can pat yourself on the back!

I think you've swallowed Daily Mail kool aid Shabby, because your comments on here and other threads about refugees reek of ignorance. A whole list is posted of things people in the camps need and you choose to focus on smart phones?

I knew there'd be a couple of flouncers when smartphones were mentioned. How dare a refugee want to access the (cheap/free & plentiful) Internet, message their family, communicate with friends/lawyers/aid agencies, or read the news.

It never fails to surprise me how many people still see access to the Internet as a luxury. The Internet is such a vital part of life now. It's very hard to keep in touch, apply for jobs, benefits, housing, banking or anything else without access to the Internet.

Funny how migrants get applauded for wanting a better life for their families at any cost to other people but people living here who also want a good life for their families get slated.

I am probably a good deal older than most posters on here and wont be around for much longer, I want my children and grandchildren to have the sort of life I have had, to live in safety with food, water, health care, education etc. Yes, I know this is what migrants want but why is it wrong for me to want it too?

I give up. you all seem to have a very blinkered view on some of these people so I am going to leave you to it and hope this mass migration doesn't have any effect on your lives but I fear it will.

Yes, do give up Shabby. The BNP must be looking for new recruits and it sounds like you'd more than qualify. Not sure why you think your family having a good life and migrants having a good life is mutually exclusive but I guess that's how the xenophobic think. And FYI, asylum seekers don't get anywhere near as much access to benefits as you imagine. That's easy to find out if you Google but I guess you'd prefer to live in a world where the term migrant is synonymous with danger.

In fact here, I've done the Googling for you, but why let something inconvenient like facts get in the way?

www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/policy_research/the_truth_about_asylum/facts_about_asylum_-_page_1

I'd just send pads. I can't see the cultural problem, periods don't care about culture or religion!

What I find 'amusing' is that a number of migrants say that one of the reasons they want to come to the UK is because they have heard that they will be given a house and will be entitled to benefits.
I think the Daily Mail is being hoist by its own petard rather.

I would send pads simply because there are people, in all sorts of cultures, who can't or don't want to use tampons for a variety of reasons. Personally I've never found tampons very comfortable and will use them as briefly as possible when it's absolutely necessary (if not going swimming would be letting someone down) but would be quite unhappy if they were all I had to use. I'm not aware of anyone who can't use pads in the way that some people can't use tampons.

Well exactly ^ this personally i cant use tampons and if it was all i had i would be in agony for 5 days if I had^ to use them pads are universally easier to use

Bloody hell I've actually heard it all now. Sending smartphones to economic migrants?

As DinosaursRoar says - these people are in a safe, democratic, first world country. What is wrong with France? Nothing at all.

The UK should have zero asylum seekers, because (apart from those arriving by air) every single one will have had to travel through a safe country (Spain, Germany, Italy, and so on), before they arrive here. They are supposed to claim asylum in the first safe country they get to. They are NOT asylum seekers. They are economic migrants and we do not have the space to let them all in!!

I am actually amazed that people are sending them things like smartphones. Why encourage them???

Oh FGS, there are plenty of other things on the list apart from smartphones. And even if someone did want to send a smartphone, it's not like they're demanding the the latest iPhone. You can get them pretty cheaply these days or donate an old one you've got.

I have some sympathy for these people, but why is it mostly young men that are fleeing? Also, these people live and think differently to us; life out there is cheap and I'm worried about my safety.

OP - why do you think they can't settle in France then? If you are prepared to help people who are chosing not to access benefits in France (which if they would be entitled to in the UK, they'd be entitled to in France), why we should give them aid when they could access it in the safe, 1st world country they are currently in?

Save your money, send it to charities helping people in the Med, people who have no other option.

(And I think we should be offering to take some of the people who are arriving and struggling in southern Europe/send more aid to avoid those countries having to shoulder the costs alone, I don't see the people in Calais as the same at all).

Flowers - it's not mainly young men, it's mainly strong, healthy young men who a) survive the journey, and b) don't just apply for help in the first safe country they get to, but are focussed on getting something 'better' than safety and basic benefits.

I have some sympathy for these people, but why is it mostly young men that are fleeing?

Half of all refugees are female. It's pretty obvious why the young men get further and are more visible.

Dinosaur - are you seriously expecting the likes of Greece to accept the main burden of this because that's where they first land? FFS the UK should at least take its fair share, we can afford to (unlike Greece). Currently we are not taking our fair share because we conveniently have a channel and a fucking great fence getting in the way.

If France were accepting them then why the fuck are they living in cardboard towns with no/little access to sanitation?

most of them ARE in the first safe place they get to, which shouldnt be OK with anyone, because Malta and italy and greece cant cope. Why does the UK complain about a couple of thousand?

You know that Turkey has taken almost 2million refugees as has Lebanon?

2 million each.

And we are worrying about a few thousand.

Fgs the level of racist, xenophobic ignorant drivel on this thread is shocking and embarrassing!! Plenty of Brits also emigrate for economic reasons but that's OK?

"Life is cheap"?! Not to the migrants escaping for their lives who unlike so many of us quite possibly know what its like to lose their entire families to tyrants (with similar views frankly!).

Where is the empathy? Compassion? Sympathy? Simple human kindness?

The " first safe country" is a very simplistic view of the actual agreements on place. Southern med countries couldn't possibly cope with supporting them all nor should they. We all have petty arguments about being in the EU but for the most part we benefit but with rights come responsibilities.

Even further beyond that if you have any intelligence/curiosity/knowledge of world politics at all even from basic news coverage you should know that a lot of the unrest and poverty in the middle East and the rest of Africa was caused/worsened by ourselves, the USA and other developed countries (who also take in migrants from that part of the world) and not even that long ago!! Though of course the effects of imperialism are still having ramifications too.

It also brings to mind a quote from (bizarrely) Adrian Mole. I'm paraphrasing but basically that if the likes of the BNP type brigade had their way and everyone not of pure Anglo Saxon heritage (which in itself is not 'pure' English!) Was 'sent home' we'd likely have a population of precisely one and it wouldn't be any of these people!

I myself am a scot, but a few hundred years ago parts of my family were Irish migrants but given our colouring (one side blonde and fair and the other dark and olive skinned) chances are go back far enough we are a combination of Nordics and Mediterranean/north African!!!

I'd LOVE to do documentary/dna genealogy on those saying 'send em all home' and see where THEY'RE actually from historically!