Wtg Pakistan! This is super news and USA citizens should take notice!
It would be great to see this in the US as well. Menstrual products are a necessity, people who have periods shouldn’t be unnecessarily taxed on something like this.
They should be free, tbh. But no tax can be the snowball that leads to an avalanche!
Commercial period products are used only by a minority of women in Pakistan because of their cost, according to research from Unicef. Most use cloth or homemade alternatives that can be unsafe and raise the risk of infection.
Two lawyers, 25-year-old Mahnoor Omer and 29-year-old Ahsan Jehangir Khan, brought a court case last year in a bid to get sanitary products zero-rated, so that they would not be subject to taxes of any kind. They said the charges amounted to a “pink tax” on women.
Their campaign was hugely successful on social media and a supportive petition attracted thousands of signatures.
Locally made period products incur the 18% sales tax in Pakistan, and imported products are subject to an additional 25% customs tax.
UN Women said the decision to abolish the sales tax was a welcome step that would help women stay in work and girls stay in school. It said: “Menstrual health is a matter of health, dignity and equality – not a luxury.”
Amazing news! I can’t imagine having to miss so much work and school every month just because of the lack of access to menstrual products.
