Abstract
BackgroundExisting literature shows that young people, especially women, have poor knowledge about sexuality and reproductive health. Many of the difficulties young women experience are related to beliefs and expectations in society making them more vulnerable to reproductive ill health. The objective of this study was to explore how young women living in a slum in Islamabad are prepared for marriage and how they understand and perceive their transition to marriage and the start of sexual and childbearing activity.MethodsTwenty qualitative interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted with young women residing in a slum of Islamabad. Content analysis was used to explore how the participants represented and explained their situation and how decisions about their marriage were made.ResultsThe main theme identified was security lies in obedience. The two sub-themes contributing to the main theme were socialization into submissiveness and transition into adulthood in silence. The theme and the sub-themes illustrate the situation of young women in a poor setting in Pakistan.ConclusionThe study demonstrates how, in a culture of silence around sexuality, young women's socialization into submissiveness lays the foundation for the lack of control over the future reproductive health that they experience.
Highlights
Existing literature shows that young people, especially women, have poor knowledge about sexuality and reproductive health
The two sub-themes illustrate the ideals, submissiveness and silence, that the Pakistani women are socialised into from childhood. These were combined into the theme of the study, security lies in obedience, illuminating the situation of young women in a poor setting in Pakistan
The women that participated in the interviews were visited several times to increase interviewer-participant rapport, to provide participants with the opportunity to recapitulate their story, and to provide the interviewer to confirm what had been told and understood
Summary
Existing literature shows that young people, especially women, have poor knowledge about sexuality and reproductive health. Many of the difficulties young women experience are related to beliefs and expectations in society making them more vulnerable to reproductive ill health. Teenage marriages are on the decline in Pakistan, one out of six women aged 15-19 years is married [1]. Cultural and religious expectations are attached to the sexual innocence and ignorance of women as a sign of purity and virginity, with marriage marking the beginning of sexual relations and childbearing [2]. Existing literature shows that young people, especially women, have poor knowledge about sexuality and and expectations that make them more vulnerable to reproductive ill health [11,13,14]
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