On Thursday 28 June 2018, the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS), held the launching ceremony of its latest research paper titled “Transition to Adulthood: Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors of Youth in Afghanistan”. Distinguished academics including youth, civil society members and media representatives attended the event. The AISS latest research paper sheds lights on the sexual transition and its types, Sexual health, sexual education.
Sediqa Bakhtiari, one of the authors of the report, presented a summary of the main findings of the report, highlighting the fact that "Gender identity is different from sex which is a biological reality. So, we were looking for social structures that make this gender identity."
According to the findings of this research, the lack of knowledge of youth and adolescents on sexual issues has had negative and harmful effects. Sexual education and fixing the economic, social and cultural situations to facilitate the proper marriage of young people can reduce the risk of premarital sexual relationships.
Rohullah Amin, psychologist , at the beginning of his speech, pointed out that discussing sexual issues in the Afghan community is considered as taboo. He emphasized that sexual desire is a natural tendency in human nature and should be recognized publicly. He expressed hope that such research studies have positive impact on the development of sexual health among youth in the society.
"In our culture, the sexual dimension of human life is ignored and suppressed to such an extent that the individual himself/ herself would suppress it. If we have a logical understanding of our sexual desire, we can control it ourselves, but when our sexual desires explode unconsciously, we are going to be controlled by it.”
Khaled Khosrow, researcher, criticized the negative role of male patriarchy in the country, saying that in recent years youth have tried to interact more openly with their opposite sex in order to have a better understanding of each other.
"Afghanistan is not apart from the phenomenon of globalization of lifestyles. Familiarity with other cultures slowly affects young people's awareness of sexual relations. But generally these sexual relationships are not the same as in other countries, but rather it is limited in the framework of traditional social relations and customs. The fact is that in our society there are more restrictions against women than men."
“Transition to Adulthood: Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors of Youth in Afghanistan” is the first paper of AISS studies on "Sexual Pluralism in Afghanistan".
you can find the executive summary of this paper in English:
you can find this paper in Dari:
aiss.af/assets/aiss_publication/Sexual_Attitudes_and_Behaviors_of_Youth_in_Afghanistan_(Farsi).pdf