Construction of Sexual Knowledge Related to Marriage

Abstract

This thesis mainly explored sexual culture and women’s perceptions and practices on their sexual health and rights. Women who were living in the traditional and sexually repressive society of Pakistan, their sources of knowledge were quite diverse. There have been only a few studies on women’s sexuality in Pakistan. Women’s basic sexual and reproductive rights are partially acknowledged and implemented in policymaking and implementation due to the fear of sexual promiscuity and socioreligious taboos. In order to get a clear picture of women’s sexual world, this study was conducted on the construction of women’s sexual knowledge relate to marriage in Attock city of District Attock, Punjab Provence in Pakistan. The objective of this study was to provide an overview of cultural sources of sexual knowledge from a feminist perspective. Also to analyze the shift in thought process after marriage and the importance of culturally provided knowledge in sexual health practices. For this purpose, 20 women from ages 16 to 35 were chosen through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. This study implied anthropological methods of data collection including in-depth interviews, case studies, and observation. This study provided an emic perspective by exploring the perception of the concept of virginity, sources of sexual knowledge, sexual language, the role of media in shaping sexual culture, and the role of culturally provided knowledge in women’s sexual health and rights. Furthermore, this study investigated cultural perspectives associated with different aspects of women’s and girls’ sexuality and reproduction. The findings of this study showed that socio-cultural norms, transgenerational culture, language, and media are creating and shaping sexual culture. Sexual knowledge was mostly taken from observation, personal experiences, peers, media, and sisters or cousins. This knowledge was full of misconceptions, ambiguity, and incomplete, got mostly after puberty, marriage or pregnancy takes place becoming the foundation of embarrassing, life-threatening, and terrifying situations and incapacity to safeguard their sexual and reproductive health and rights. In conclusion, acceptance, and recognition of sexuality in culture can be helpful in provision of timely, culturally appropriate, and accurate knowledge to women and girls