A Zambian law, known as ‘Mother’s Day’, allows women to take one day off work in a month during their period.

Female workers can take their Mother’s day entitlement any time during the month if they are feeling too sick to work, irrespective of whether they are going through their menstrual cycle or not.

While employers can face prosecution if they deny female staff the right to exercise the legal provision, the country’s labour minister Joyce Nonde-Simukoko has warned that the law is strictly there to serve its intended purpose.

She told the BBC: “If you absent yourself yet you are found in a disco house, then it will not be taken as Mother’s Day.

“You shouldn’t even leave town, be found doing your hair or shopping. You can be fired. For example, somebody was found farming after taking Mother’s Day and she was fired.”

Globally, menstrual leave policies are largely uncommon but the practice is spreading. Countries in Asia such as South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan have legal provisions for menstrual leave.

Female workers in the Chinese provinces of Shanxi, Hubei and Ningxia can take extra leave days to accommodate their time of the month, while Japan’s menstruation practices have been in place since 1947.

In March 2016, Bristol-based company Co-Exist announced plans to implement a “period policy” allowing female staff to take time off during their periods.

Bex Baxter, the director of Coexist said the strategy was about “balancing workload in line with the natural cycles of the body”.

In an interview with the Bristol Post she said: “There is a misconception that taking time off makes a business unproductive.

“I have managed many female members of staff over the years and I have seen women at work who are bent over double because of the pain caused by their periods. Despite this, they feel they cannot go home because they do not class themselves as unwell.