Unmet Needs of Adolescent and Young People's Sexual and Reproductive Health in Iran

More than one fourth of the total population in Iran are young people aged 10-24 (1). On the one hand, strong cultural and religious values surround sexuality before marriage and on the other hand, shifts towards greater interaction between young men and women are occurring in response to the spread of education among females, the postponement of marriage, and outside influences (2-4). Although illegal, satellite is widely accessible (5, 6). Spread of social networks and communication technology has been fast among young people. Even sexuality is reflected openly in some rap music which is illegally accessible among adolescents and young people. Despite the recognition that such social and communication changes make the interchange of information including those with sexual content easier and faster among people, facilitate interpersonal communication and relationships and in fact provide greater opportunity for premarital liaisons and sex, there is still no comprehensive policy and program that target unmarried youth to address values, abstinence as well as safe sex in this country. One important reason can be denial of premarital sex (7). It might be claimed that sex is supposed to be confined within marriage in Iran and premarital mandatory courses have been designed to youth who intend to marry. The answer is that, evidence shows that despite normative inappropriateness (8), and legal and religious prohibition, a significant minority of females and relatively greater proportion of young men, do not wait until marriage to initiate sex (9). Due to the fact there is no supportive services, sexually active youth are exposed to social and medical risks associated with premarital sex (such as STIs, HIV, unwanted pregnancy , unsafe abortion, violence, and suicide). Hence, these premarital counseling programs, only target youth who postpone sex until after marriage. How about the rest of young people? For any reason, whether they should be overlooked? In fact, in contrary to huge social pressure on young people for premarital sex, no formal education has been designed for them. Stigma on communication about sexuality (7), strong taboo and gender double standard in sexuality before marriage, make these outcomes unrecognized. Even most parents and teachers hesitate to communicate with young people about consequences of premarital sex, protection against risk before they get involved in such relations. One may claim that youth are not aware of sexuality and should not be communicated on sexuality issues until they marry. The answer is that today's young people …