Sexual Health Education Resources in the Southeast of Iran

Background: To determine the most usual resources that adolescents and teenagers are using to learn about sexual issues. A cross-sectional exploratory study implemented in June 2015 in Zahedan, the capital city of Sistan-va-Baluchestan Province, located in the southeast of Iran. Methods: Using convenient sampling method, from among student of two large universities in Zahedan, 134 students 18 to 22 years old, accepted invitation for filling a self-administered anonymized questionnaire containing, 8 semi-closed questions about sexual issues. Results: 44.9% of women and 41.6% of men mentioned one of their friends as their tutors. While 42.0% of women mentioned their mothers as one of their tutors, only 18.8% of them believed that more than 50% of their sexual knowledge came from their mothers. 23.1% of male participants and 36.2% of female ones alleged to know personally people of their own ages who had been subjected to sexual abuse or harassment earlier in their life. Conclusion: In Iran, educating sexual issues to adolescents is badly in need of organization and management. While the rule of a committed extra-family tutor (e.g. an officially appointed school teacher) might not be considered a solution, parents have to be prompted for filling the gap.