L'importance d'une éducation sexuelle chez les jeunes du monde arabe

The Arab world, two-thirds of whose population is today made up of young people under 25, is in full transformation. The Arab revolutions have challenged the value system that reigned for decades or even centuries and that developed under dictatorial and totalitarian regimes. Today, young people in the Arab world, who were the catalysts for the fall of the dictators, now find themselves caught between the difficult quest for their freedom and independence and the weight of reprisals by the former regimes and old conservative opponents. This double constraint that they are under creates a sort of social schizophrenia in them, since freedom also involves the body, initiation to a healthy sex life and a solid knowledge of reproductive health, whereas* conservative governments’ approaches and emerging obscurantist currents regard the body and sexuality as the most impure sins and the most unspoken taboos. This has prompted young people, out of ignorance of their needs and owing to the culture of bodily denial that has been perpetuated for generations, to take risks through experiences that jeopardise their lives and their mental well-being. The situation is alarming, and there is only one solution: sexual education for all young Arabs.

* Translator’s note: the connecting word here did not make sense and has been corrected so that the sentence is logical.