Developing and testing a sex education program for the female clients of health centers in Iran

A Qualitative Assessment of the Sex Education Needs of Married Iranian Women

“…The demonstrated success of the sex education program based on this research (Shirpak et al 2007b) supports the conclusion that such programs are feasible, welcomed, and beneficial to the marital relationships of Iranian women and that they can be delivered within the context of a religiously oriented Muslim society.…”

“…The evaluation of the sex education program developed based on this research demonstrated first, that it is possible to deliver such a program using the family health providers in health centers and, second, that this particular program produced gains in knowledge, shifts in attitudes, and improvements in communication and negotiation between wives and husbands on sexual matters. In addition, women responded positively, several voluntarily providing unsolicited attestations to the improvements in their sexual lives resulting from participation in the program (Shirpak et al 2007b). …”

Iranian university students’ perceived reproductive health needs

“…In the sociocultural context of Iran, children grow up under the close supervision of parents, being trained for assuming the roles of good offspring; thus, when she/he is married, it is expected that she/he must fulfill the designated marital duty (10). Meanwhile, there are fewer interactions between boys and girls before marriage, because they are separated from one another from primary school until university, and any relationship is deemed taboo.…”

“…In Iran, many reproductive health services are already provided without cost to married couples (10,11). However, services that meet the needs of young, single people are lagging behind, and health care providers are often inadequately trained to deal with young people's reproductive health matters (12,13).…”

Constructing the ideal Muslim sexual subject: problematics of school-based sex education in Iran

“…It has been noted that in contrast to many other Muslim countries, Iran has often approached Islamic law in a pragmatic way to take into consideration modern social demands such as the contemporary sexual and reproductive health needs of its population (Greene et al 2002). Over the past two decades, sexual and reproductive health education strategies in Iran have been mainly focused on two key areas: first, HIV prevention, addressing mainly groups such as injecting drug users, female sex workers and prisoners (NACS 2010) and, second, reproductive health and family planning, focused only on engaged and married couples' needs (Shirpak et al 2007). Neither of these areas includes adolescents and unmarried young people in general.…”