The Need of Sexual Education, Especially for Young Women, is being Sorely Overlooked in Iran
Christiane Campbell (FIQWS 10103, Tuesdays) 11/1/19
Iran has undergone many political changes throughout history, but especially in women’s gender and politics. At the turn of the 20th century, Iranian women were veiled; from 1936 to 1979 (under the Pahlavis dynasty), Iranian women were unveiled; finally, after the Revolution of 1979, when the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) came into power, Iranian women were reveiled. These events signified the imposed constraints of women’s sexuality and submissive role in a patriarchal society, the lifting of those constraints, and then the reimposing of them (but to a lesser extent than at the turn of the 20th century) after 1979, respectively. Although women’s gender and politics is an increasingly popular subject of discussion in Iran, one aspect is sorely overlooked: the sexuality, more specifically the sexual health, of Iran’s young women and how film can be used as a tool for sexual education.
Film is crucial to people’s knowledge on certain topics because media is a primary way that people acquire knowledge and ideas. This is proved through Iran’s history with film. After the 1979 Revolution, Iran began to prohibit certain films from reaching the public. Mention of Iran’s censorship of such films is important because it conveys the extensive power Iran’s government has to keep the general population from certain types of knowledge and in turn the power they have to give the general population certain knowledge if they put as much effort into sexual education as they do censorship. Another reason film is important is because it can destigmatize women’s sexuality in Iran. With it being strongly preferred for women to wear hijabs to even temporarily marrying a man to be able to interact with them on a movie set if they are acting together, it is very clear that there is a strong wall of stigma encompassing women’s sexuality in Iran. A final reason film is important is that it can inform illiterate women where books, articles, and apps cannot since you do not have to read (in most cases) film in order to understand it since it mainly functions on visuals and sound. Furthermore, after it being explained why sexual education through film is important, it should also be enunciated what these films should look like- specifically what should be included in them. The subjects in films of sexual education that should be discussed are STDs, contraceptives, and unwanted pregnancies. Unfortunately, due to the remaining stigma of sexual topics in Iran, there are not really any films on sexual health in Iran or any articles about film concerning the sexual health of Iran.
Finally, the reason I chose the journal “Unmet Needs of Adolescent and Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health in Iran” by Farideh Khalajabadi-Farahani is because it pertained to my subject the most out of all the other journals I took a look at. Also, I appreciated the structure of the journal. It first gave a background of the problem, which I likewise did in my introduction. Then, it included factual numbers on the issue, which I also did. Lastly, it gave a solution to the issue, which I also did by proposing films and what should be included in said sexual education videos. Some challenges in completing this publication is that I had to shorten it a lot since there is a 500 word limit. I feel that I would have been able to create a better publication without this constraint. Fortunately, I was still able to mold my publication to the journal.
ReferencesKhalajabadi-Farahani, Farideh. “Unmet Needs of Adolescent and Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health in Iran.” Journal of Reproduction & Infertility, Avicenna Research Institute, 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4508349/.
