Over the past 30 years, Arab countries have experienced rapid changes that deeply shattered the structure of their societies and that had a significant impact on the life of young people. Greater exposure to the norms of global culture through the Medias, higher educational levels for both men and women, and the large recent trend of rising age at marriage in most Arab countries, have produced a rapid evolution of social norms and structures that resulted in important changes in young people’s life styles in the region, particularly in their sexual and reproductive life.

As a matter of fact, early age at first sexual intercourse and premarital sexual activity are growing trends, but cultural taboos surround sexuality matters, as well as the high social value placed on virginity - particularly for women - remain very strong. This leads to a critical situation where a significant proportion of young people does engage in sexual intercourse before marriage, but the lack of sexuality education inside the family and in public schools’ curriculum leaves them in the dark about their sexuality and puts them at high risk of unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortion, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases etc, as they often lack accurate information to make responsible choices and to have a safe sexual life.

Since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, most Arab countries have committed to invest more in youth’s sexual and reproductive health by integrating sexuality education into schools’ curriculum and by ensuring the provision of comprehensive health services, including contraception for sexually active adolescents. But despite some initiatives carried in a few countries (Tunisia, Jordan and Morocco), most of the Arab region still falls well short of ICPD’s recommendations.

The scarcity of evidence on young people’s sexual and reproductive knowledge and behaviour - highlighted by the Harvard Review of Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Arab States and Iran - and the strong reluctance in conducting studies that would shed the light on the age of initiation of sexual intercourse or the frequency of premarital sexual activity is greatly limiting the knowledge base on youth needs and concerns and makes it extremely difficult to design appropriate evidence-based policies and programmes that would effectively address young people’s needs in terms of knowledge, information and services.

With alarming rates from the few existing studies such as 23% of young males and 40% of young females knowing nothing about the reproductive system in Egypt; only 30% of Military students engaging in sexual relations with multiple partners using condoms in Lebanon and 27% of boys aged 15-29 reporting not finding out about puberty from anyone in Algeria, there is an urgent need to identify areas in need of research, fill the numerous information gaps and provide a comprehensive database to facilitate the planning of effective action by governments, donors, and all organizations working on youth’s sexual and reproductive health both at the regional and national levels.

Imane Khachani, MD

Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Morocco

1. Bonnie L. Shepard, Jocelyn L. DeJong, Rana Jawad et al. Review of Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Arab States and Iran. September 2004.

2. Inventory of Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour studies related to Youth SRR in the Arab States – UNFPA, American University of Beirut. October 2004