Sexual taboo in the Middle East

Sexual health education varies from country to country. Most people can agree that sex education is important for young adults to learn, which usually includes learning about puberty, sexually transmitted infections and diseases, and preventing unwanted pregnancies.^[2] Reproductive health (RH) is a part of sexual health, which can be defined to have a desirable and safe sexual life with the ability to reproduce and having a free will to determine if, when, and how we do so. RH also refers to the basic right to access health care and education which, for instance, allows women to have safe pregnancies and deliveries, but it should also enable the appropriate care and consultation concerning reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases. ^[3][5]

Generally, young people in the Middle East will get their information about sexuality and reproduction from their parents. However, young people are afraid to ask out of fear that their parents will assume they are engaging in sexual activities.^[2] Media in the Middle East does not offer much when it comes to sexual and reproductive health. In addition, political figures do not advocate for more accurate information when it comes to sexual health. If political figures introduced sexual health more into public schools and the media, then perhaps talking about sex would not be so taboo. Although there has been evidence on the importance of sexual education for women and girls, publicly it is still frowned upon.

Many argue, that the Middle East needs to have a better system in informing and guiding the policy makers in the region, but first, they should make awareness of the different cultural, social, religious and political factors, and realise that in many countries, such as Saudi Arabia, women are not equal to men, therefore they are not treated as equals, not in social life, nor in their sexual life.

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) argued that the SRH services are challenged by the lack of integration and inequity in access and also questionable quality of the services, therefore an urgent call is needed to the SRH services in the MENA region, making sure that these services are not distinguished between socio-economic levels, urban or rural areas, or between age groups, and to improve the quality of the services.^[3] DAWN also realized, that by engaging more in the region between research institutes, civil society, and governments, they are able to create better outcomes in the Middle East.

Quantitative research in the Middle East and particularly in surveys done with the youth have shown that there is a lack of adequate education of younger populations as to their sexual health, including taboos, contraception and family planning. Empirical data gained from interviews clearly show a clear discomfort of younger generations in broaching these subjects, making it all the more difficult to properly address the problem of their insufficient education.

As sexually transmitted diseases and infections can be especially preeminent in low-income countries, the sexual and reproductive health of younger individuals is seen as paramount by governments, NGOs and health professionals. Awareness of the dangers of unprotected sex and wider lack of reproductive healthcare infrastructure is the focus of many campaigns in increasing SRH.

The formal education system in Egypt provides young people with very limited information on sex and reproductive health. A survey conducted in 2009 by the Population Council in Cairo showed that 15,000 people aged 10–29 received little to no information on sexual health from public school.^[6]

It is paramount to look at sexual and reproductive education challenges using a single service delivery system as opposed to the current disposition of no vision at all. Among the numerous problems dogging media literacy in Middle East are reproductive health and sexual health issues.^[7][8] The twist in the tale is that premarital sex is largely prohibited while media coverage of such issues as sexual and reproductive health is considered taboo. This indicates a society characterized by self-denial and hypocrisy because people know and even think that sexual reproduction health is crucial but nobody wants to confront it^[8]

Majority of both men and women in Iran supported dating in order to get more acquainted with the person before marriage.^[9] On the other hand, when it came to intimacy and non-sexual contact, 69% of men were open to it compared to only 50.5% of women.^[9] There were certain things that would affect a person's attitudes towards premarital sex. Education levels made no significant difference in whether someone agreed with premarital sex. Religion however, played a big part in the attitudes towards premarital sex. Those who were religious were more against premarital sex than those who were not religious.^[9]

Premarital sex is growing more acceptable for men in Turkey, but is still widely disapproved of for women. A study done in Turkey including 124 undergraduate students and 60 adults showed some of the various views on premarital sex. Women who have engaged in premarital sex are looked at as being less desirable than women who are virgins. This is because female virginity is valuable in deciding whether a woman is pure in Turkish culture.^[10] Men tended to look more negatively upon premarital sex compared to women, yet men engaged more in premarital sex than women did.^[10]

Disconnect between policy, research, and practice is detrimental to sexual and health reproduction in Middle East. Usually, the official policies in Middle East do less than combat the underlying sexual taboo.^[7]

New policies and projects were introduced in connection to Sexual and Reproductive Rights in the region in the last two decades, however it should be a great importance to assure those rights in a more detailed manner.

All efforts by all stakeholders should ensure the followings: prevention of early marriage through programmes which take into consideration the circumstances and needs of the girls/women, their parents and communities prevention of FGM, legislative reform is needed in connection to abortion, SRH rights should be given not only to local, but for migrant workers as well, the region needs to develop a comprehensive sex education as an integral part o school curricula (and not only at universities), and they should develop comprehensive strategy to prevent gender based violence in the MENA region.^[3]

Under Islamic law homosexual acts are unequivocally prohibited. The Koran refers to homosexuals as Lot's people (quam Lut), Lot being the Islamic prophet who preached against homosexuality in the cities of Sodom and Gomorra.^[11] According to Kligerman, "In the Qur’an, Lut questions, ‘How can you lust for males, of all creatures in the world, and leave those whom God has created for you as your mates? You are really going beyond all limits’... The Prophet Muhammad adds, "Doomed by God is who does what Lot’s people did" (i.e. to engage in same-sex sexual activity) .’"^[12]

Muhammad said that, "’No man should look at the private parts of another man, and no woman should look at the private parts of another woman, and no two men sleep [in bed] under one cover, and no two women sleep under one cover.’ In his last speech, known as the ‘Farewell Sermon’, he added a last condemnation of homosexuality, saying, ‘Whoever has intercourse with a woman and penetrates her rectum, or with a man, or with a boy, will appear on the Last Day stinking worse than a corpse; people will find him unbearable until he enters hell fire, and God will cancel all his good deeds.’"^[12]

Christianity has a variety of sects in the Middle East, but two important ones are the Coptic and Maronites Churches. Maronites have long taken a stance against same-sex relations, and most recently, have rejected the Catholic Pope’s statement to welcome LGBTQ+  people into churches. The criminalization of  homosexual relations  with Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal code (Lebanon having the highest concentration of Maronites in the Middle East) was heavily supported by Maronite and Jesuit communities. According to the Coptic Church “Everything that is created by God (specifically those attributes that relate to the image of God which all human were created on) is not just good but is very good (Genesis 1:31).  This means that when the human being uses and expresses all the God given faculties in a proper way as intended by God, in the proper time and proper place, these things lead to edification and even to salvation.  This includes the expression of love through the means of marital relations and sexuality.” This being said, same-sex marriage in most countries in the Middle East, rendering homosexuality intolerable by Coptic religious moors.

Although there exist many myths on sexuality within the Jewish community, many are misconceptions. There exist many specific restrictions on nuances of sexual contact, that vary with the wide number of communities around the MENA region. To exemplify , “Traditional Jewish observance expressly forbids sexual contact between spouses during the days of menstruation and for a week thereafter”^[13].Despite this, Judaism is very encouraging towards sexual relations in the context of marriage, not only for the objective of bearing children, but also for sexual health and strengthening the marital bond.

In 2003 a conference was held at Malta, named the Sexual and Bodily Rights in the Middle East and North Africa, which was co-organized by Women for Women’s Human Rights and where 22 representatives of NGOs from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Pakistan and the USA participated. Experts came from different backgrounds, such as healthcare, law, psychology, academia and education gathered together to have a discussion about the revealed human rights violations across the region.

The goal of the conference was to explore the themes of sexuality and gender issues around bodily rights, and to develop regional, national and international strategies to overcome these violations with the use of law, social and political practices.^[14] In the focus they placed the deconstructing taboos around sexuality, laws leading to violations of sexual and bodily rights, women’s rights to pleasure and to control over their bodies, and the eradication of all forms of violence.

During the conference they realised, that despite the positive changes across the region, sexuality for most part of the Middle East and North Africa still remains a taboo, where Islamic law treats rape not as a crime against God (as in case of adultery), but as theft or violation of property, and honour killings are encouraged in case of adultery if it is caused by a woman.^[14]

“Violations of women’s sexual and bodily rights do not simply originate from religion, but rather are the result of the combination of historical, traditional, social and economical constructs. Many violations in the region such as early, forced and temporary marriages, lack of alimony, honor crimes, stem from traditions and customary laws.”^[14]

As stated prior, the religious prescriptions of Islam are not a definitive indication of one’s behavior in society. Although one may be hesitant to proclaim themselves openly as homosexual, it is not uncommon for one to participate in homosexual activities so long as they simultaneously uphold other societal norms. One essential institution in the Middle East is the family. So long as a man upholds this institution, by taking a wife and fathering children, what occurs in private will be of no interest to others.^[15] "Known homosexuals were tolerated in public office if they continue to publicly live a heterosexual lifestyle. For instance, Sultan Mehmet II, Ottoman conqueror of Constantinople, and Sultan Mahmud Ghaznawi, who invaded India from Afghanistan, are both important historical figures and known gays. Both men had several wives and children. While Westerners would view these men—and those like them—as bisexual, Muslims view them as consistent with shari’a; they maintained an outwardly conforming appearance in terms of familial and public life but happened to engage in homosexual activity."^[15] Homosexual acts can also be well received if they allude to an expression of dominance over another, "’In Turkey, Egypt and the Maghreb, men who are ‘active’ in sexual relations with other men are not considered homosexual; the sexual domination of other men even confers a status of hyper-masculinity.’"^[16]

On the sexual assault of a Druze chieftain :

‘News of the incident,’ the chronicler added, ‘reached the women and children [of the city], and songs about him [i.e., the Emir] were composed and performed by singers . . . He then departed to the land of the Druzes, his home, and it was said that the woman remained untainted [i.e., she was not dishonored before the arrival of the soldiers], and thus God forsook the damned Emir at the hands of the Turcomans.’"^[17] The people viewed Turcomans treatment of the Emir as an honorable one. There focus was not on whether or not such acts constituted anything that could be identified as "homosexual" in nature, but rather the effects that such actions would have on the Emir. The Emir, by being both the receiver (the pathic) of the sex act and by doing so against his will (as a result of his attempt to defile, so to speak, the local woman) is stripped of his dignity which has subsequently been transferred to his conquerors. "[T]o penetrate phallically is to dominate, subjugate, and ultimately to humiliate"^[17]

More conservative states today, particularly authoritarian ones like Iraq the absolute monarchy of Saudi Arabia, as well as theocracies like Iran, are characterised by heavy reppression of homosexual behavior. Corporal punishment, imprisonment, and even the death penalty are common as part of the criminalization of homosexuality.

Less conservative states today like Turkey and Israel are influenced by LGBTQ+  movements which find great success in shifting public perception and even policy. Today, the Turkish constitution does not include any discriminatory measures on the basis of sexuality which, although much progress has to be done in regards to harassment and sexual expression in Turkish civil society, demonstrates further tolerance towards different sexualities than other Middle Eastern countries.

According to literature that can be dated as far back as the 1500s to present day is where we can find evidence of,^[18] pederasty, or amorous and sexual relations between men and adolescent boys. Pederasty is easily confused with pedophilia; the latter is characterized by a sexual attraction to children who have not yet begun pubertal development. Some too draw a distinction between what might be called a biological definition of childhood and a socio-legal one.^[19]

"Mālikī scholars of the early Ottoman period repeatedly confirmed that a man would negate his state of ritual purity if he touched with lust the skin of a beardless or downy-cheeked youth, since they fell under the category of that 'which is normally the object of lust.'"^[20]

The French traveller Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt, who visited Egypt between 1777 and 1780, made a similar observation:

"The passion contrary to nature . . . the inconceivable appetite which dishonored the Greeks and Persians of antiquity, constitute the delight, or, to use a juster term, the infamy of the Egyptians. It is not for the women that their amorous ditties are composed: it is not on them that tender caresses are lavished; far different objects inflame them.”^[17]

The Egyptian scholar Rifāah al Tahtāwī, who was in Paris between 1826 and 1831, noted:

"Amongst the laudable traits of their character, similar really to those of the Bedouin [arab], is their not being inclined toward loving male youths and eulogizing them in poetry, for this is something unmentionable for them and contrary to their nature and morals. One of the positive aspects of their language and poetry is that it does not permit the saying of love poetry of someone of the same sex. Thus, in the French language a man cannot say: I loved a youth (ghulām), for that would be an unacceptable and awkward wording. Therefore if one of them translates one of our books he avoids this by saying in the translation: I loved a young female (ghulāmah) or a person (dhātan).”^[17]

At the end of his book Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800, Khaled El-Rouayheb concludes,

"Falling in love with a teenage youth and expressing this love in verse were not punishable offenses, and a significant number of Islamic scholars, though not all, asserted that such behavior was not objectionable."^[21]

Today, for some, the Middle East is often mistakenly seen as one of the most repressive regions with regards to sexual expression. Some historians have noted, however, that with respect to homosexuality, such repression was, imported, so to speak, from the West.^[22] [T]he encounter with European Victorian morality was to have profound effects on local attitudes toward what came to be called "sexual inversion" or "sexual perversion" (shudhūdh jinsā).^[23] With the Middle East's contact with the West came an increasing importance placed on assimilation, so to speak, with the values and systems prescribed from the West. The rise in participation in international markets came the destruction of the kinship-based community and an increasing stigma toward homosexuality "‘The concept of homosexuality as defining a particular type person and a category of ‘deviance’ came to the Middle East [through the agency] of the West’ as well. Until Western influence, homosexuality did not carry a negative connotation in the Muslim world. The change in community structure and the rising influence of Western perceptions thus largely created the contemporary taboo against homosexuality in Muslim societies."^[24]