The price of menstruation
In Kosovo, menstrual products are taxed at 18%. Is it time for that to change?
What is period poverty?
Ana described missing work and canceling travel plans because heavy bleeding sometimes made it difficult to leave the house.
Stigma around menstruation is not specific to one community.
Yet the cost of menstruation is not felt only by women who are unemployed, rural or outside the majority community.
Improvised or reusable materials can pose health risks if they are not handled hygienically.
Across Kosovo, women and girls spend around 54 million euros per year on these products, of which around four million euros go to the state through VAT.
VAT reform should be accompanied by other measures.
Bubulina Peni
Bubulina Peni started her career in journalism in 2020 at a local television station in Kosovo. Later, she became an investigative journalist at KALLXO.com and Prishtina Insight. Currently, she works as a journalist on the production Familja Jonë, a weekly show dedicated to social welfare. Bubulina is a beneficiary of the sixth cycle of the K2.0 Journalism Scholarship.
This story was originally written in English.