How a high school student inspired Ann Arbor’s groundbreaking tampon law - mlive.com

ANN ARBOR, MI — Zaynab Elkolaly said she first approached Mayor Christopher Taylor about expanding access to menstrual products in Ann Arbor a few years ago.

She was still a teenager in high school at the time, but she saw a need in the community.

“I would have regular meetings with him on his Friday office hours. I would just go in and talk to him about things that were happening in the city and things that can be improved,” she said. “And I had spoken to this homeless woman and she was telling me about how they had to use like paper towels and toilet paper and brown paper bags and anything they could get because they didn’t have access to menstrual products.”

Elkolaly said she got what she thought was a regular politician’s answer. Taylor said he’d look into it.

“Turns out he really looked into it,” Elkolaly said.

Taylor, who worked with the city attorney’s office to see what could be done, now credits Elkolaly for inspiring a new city ordinance that is the first of its kind in the U.S., requiring all public restrooms in Ann Arbor to offer free menstrual products, including tampons and pads.

Elkolaly was attending Washtenaw Technical Middle College, a four-year high school on the Washtenaw Community College campus, when she raised the issue with the mayor.

Now 20 and studying engineering and political science at the University of Michigan, she said she was pleasantly surprised when the mayor recently let her know about the law. Given its novelty, it has attracted national and international media attention, including reports on CNN and NPR.

“I can’t even wrap my mind around it,” Elkolaly said.

As a member of UM’s Central Student Government, she’s now working on getting movement on the issue on campus.

While the university has constitutional autonomy and doesn’t have to follow city ordinances, UM spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said UM launched a two-year pilot project in August, when the Division of Student Life collaborated with Central Student Government to offer free feminine hygiene products in restrooms of select Student Life and academic buildings.

“The purpose of the pilot program is to enable the university to assess the campus demand and associated operational impact and costs,” Fitzgerald said. “During the pilot program, free products are provided in a total of 96 restrooms on the Ann Arbor campus, including those in nine residence halls, seven academic buildings and the four university union facilities.”

The university is continuing to assess the pilot program at this time, Fitzgerald said.

Outside of the university, all public restrooms in the city, including at bars and restaurants and other places of business and public buildings, must be stocked with tampons and pads starting Jan. 1, per the city ordinance.

While it has gotten big attention, Elkolaly said she didn’t think of it as some big idea when she presented it to the mayor.

“I thought it was just common sense, like businesses spending the few extra dollars just to make sure that menstruating people were accommodated,” she said. “I didn’t think it was anything particularly revolutionary.”

Her feelings now?

“Overwhelmed and gobsmacked and really, really, really, really, really happy,” she said, adding she got a call about it on her way to student government and started bawling.

It reminded her to never give up on the process and never stop bringing up concerns, she said.

“I just want to make sure that young people know that the power is in their hands, evidently, and to always be vigilant of things that are happening around them and to bring that up with people who have the capacity to create the change,” she said.

Taylor hopes other cities follow Ann Arbor’s lead, creating a new societal expectation of period products in public restrooms.

MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

source: https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2021/11/how-a-high-school-student-inspired-ann-arbors-groundbreaking-tampon-law.html

Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.