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" What a week it has been! Marking\u00A0International Women&amp;#039;s Day\u00A0on and around the 8th of March was absolutely incredible. I\u00A0spoke at the EU Parliament in Brussels, the University of Oxford, and then at the Women of the World (WOW) Festival in London. The air and space was filled with so much hope for women&amp;#039;s rights and how far we have come, however, we still have a very long way to go.\u00A0  During the WOW festival, I came across a campaign called &amp;quot;Bloody Disgrace.&amp;quot; They are campaigning to eradicate\u00A0the taxation of tampons. I for one was shocked to hear this,\u00A0because I made the assumption that\u00A0we are exempt\u00A0from such taxation due to our bodies&amp;#039; natural function. I don&amp;#039;t have my period for the fun of it and tampons are a necessity, not a luxury! Many of us, myself included,\u00A0suffer from serious PMS, which is a nightmare to deal with - but that&amp;#039;s a story for another blog.\u00A0 Did you know that we are not taxed on Jaffa Cakes and men&amp;#039;s razors? Basically, hairy beards are more important than me bleeding for seven days of the month, with cramps and serious mood swings. Are you bloody kidding me?! Does the world hate women that much?\u00A0Tampons are essential. So, now am I\u00A0expected to stuff clothes in my underwear? This is a great example of the misogynist system we have here in the UK, and I can&amp;#039;t believe I&amp;#039;m actually writing about this. Seriously, we are mutilated, beaten, sexually assaulted and harassed, discriminated against due to our gender\u2026and now I find out I&amp;#039;m taxed for having menstrual cycles! This is an outrage. I&amp;#039;m not even on my period as I write this piece and I&amp;#039;m bloody fuming.\u00A0    Sign the Bloody Petition #InternationalWomensday #BloodyDisgrace https://t.co/RAfbivSf1y \u2014 Bloody Disgrace (@BloodyDisgrace) March 5, 2015    Loren Cook, one of the co-founders of the Bloody Disgrace campaign said: &amp;quot;A month ago the issue of &amp;#039;Tampon Tax&amp;#039; came in to our lives. As we were all morally outraged, and we all work in digital advertising, we decided put our skills, brains and passion to good use. With the support of FullSIX London, we&amp;#039;ve hopefully launched a campaign that could make a global impact on women&amp;#039;s lives. However, we&amp;#039;ve launched this off our own backs, not as work for our agency, and with zero budget.&amp;quot;\u00A0 There are 3.52 billion women in the world right now who would say that menstrual hygiene products are essential to lead a functional, normal life. Hello, I&amp;#039;m stating the obvious here! However, several governments don&amp;#039;t agree.\u00A0They deem these items non-essential, and tax them accordingly.\u00A0 Loren Cook also tells me: &amp;quot;We are creating a global campaign and a global petition, directed at the United Nations, to raise awareness of this unfair tax in the hope of getting nations to act together to declare that menstrual hygiene products are essential goods.&amp;quot;\u00A0 This is indeed a &amp;quot;Bloody Disgrace,&amp;quot; and I urge you all to join this campaign and stay tuned for updates from bloodydisgrace.org. * Follow Bloody Disgrace on Twitter and Facebook for more "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/news/a34185/the-tampon-tax-has-to-end/>