Virginity Requirement Versus Sexually-Active Young People: What Girls and Boys Think About Virginity in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

Development of strategies to promote healthy sexuality based on Iranian girls perspective about the role of virginity in the construction of their sexuality: an explanatory sequential mixed method study protocol

Background

The modern Iran is a blend of tradition and modernity, but its dominant culture is still traditional and takes pride in female virginity. On the other hand, the influential factors such as modernity, education, social networks, global communication, influence from advanced Western societies, have obviously led to the emergence of a freer sexual attitude associated with less significance of virginity. Since the traditional, cultural and religious significance of virginity among Iranian girls can shape their sexual behaviors, therefore, the aim of the present study is development of strategies to promote healthy sexuality based on Iranian girls perspective about the role of virginity in the construction of their sexuality.

Methods/design

This is a two-stage study; an explanatory sequential mixed-methods follow-up design will be employed in the first stage, which consists of two quantitative and qualitative phases. The first phase is the cross-sectional survey that will be conducted on 700 single girls born in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The sample will be selected using the cluster sampling method in the health centers of Tabriz-Iran. The determined sample size will be divided among the selected health centers based on the quota criterion, and eligible households will be selected randomly from the said centers using the SIB website (sib.tbzmed.ac.ir). To collect the required data in the quantitative phase, we will use a researcher-made questionnaire to evaluate the girls’ views about virginity and its influential factors, designed based on the theory of “social construction of sexuality”. After quantitative data collection and analysis, the findings inform qualitative data collection and analysis. The qualitative phase of the study will be conducted on girls living in Tabriz using in-depth and semi-structured individual interviews and purposive sampling method to collect the required qualitative data. The collected data will be analyzed using the conventional content analysis approach. The findings of two phase will be integrated for further explanation and interpretation to be used in the second stage. In the second phase of this study, a nominal group meeting will be held with the participation of reproductive and sexual health experts. The strategies extracted from the results of the first phase and review the texts in this meeting will be provided to experts and after receiving the opinions and ideas of the relevant group of experts and prioritizing them, appropriate strategies to improve and promote the healthy sexuality of Iranian girls will be presented.

Discussion

This study is one of the few studies conducted in the field of sexual health and culture in Iran, that using a “mixed-methods” approach to determine and explain the role of virginity in the construction of the sexuality from the Iranian girls perspective. We hope that this study can present evidence-based documents from the latest physical, psychological and social developments in young Iranian girls’ sexuality and that the presented healthy sexuality promotion strategies, which will be based on Iranian socio-cultural developments, can provide the basic information required for policy-making and planning for young girls’ sexual health. It is also hoped that the findings of this study will be useful in culture-based sexuality education and support for reproductive and sexual health care for the young Iranian generation.

Custom, culture and religion in many communities impose virginity on the women of their communities. According to the traditional and conservative Iranian culture, premarital sexual relations are forbidden, female virginity is honor, and it is valuable and necessary for a girl to maintain and take care of her virginity. Attitudes toward sexual relationship and its moral aspects have changed dramatically in many parts of the world in recent decades. Iran, as a conservative society, is no exception to this rule and has experienced substantial social and attitudinal changes over the past decades. This is a two-stage study; an explanatory sequential mixed-methods follow-up design will be employed in the first stage, which consists of two quantitative and qualitative phases. At first quantitative data collection and analysis will be conducted, then the findings inform qualitative data collection and analysis. The findings of two phase will be integrated for further explanation and interpretation to be used in the second stage. In the second stage of the study, the researchers will develop appropriate strategies for the girls’ sexual health promotion by a combination of the relevant experts’ views obtained in the nominal group meeting and the results extracted from a review of literature as well as the results of the quantitative and qualitative phases of the first stage. it seems that the present study, by employing a better quantitative and qualitative approach, can clarify the young generation’s view in the socio-cultural background of Iran and explore the possible inconsistency and contradictions in the modern Iranian society to determine whether the traditional view of the concept of virginity in Iran is still dominant, or it has been changed by factors such as modernization, global communications, influence from advanced Western societies.

"A Slap of Love": A Way of Showing Love and Resolving Conflict Among Young People in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

This article draws on qualitative study to examine Congolese male and female high school students' attitudes toward intimate partner violence. A total of 56 boys and girls aged 16-20 years from two urban and two rural high schools in South Kivu province took part in focus groups, and 40 of these were subsequently interviewed individually. To the majority of male and female participants, when the man or boy beats his wife or girlfriend that means he loves her and he wants her to change. They believed that if a boy does not love her, he may let her go on making mistakes. Some male participants viewed women and girlfriend beating as a way to let her realize her inferiority. However, some female participants disagreed with these assumptions but they concomitantly accepted a "slap of love." There is a strong need to re-educating both males and females to address the problem, and particularly train men to treat women respectfully and non-violently.