Spirituality and cultural factors impact on sexuality: A qualitative study

Abstract

Due to the relationship between the employment of married women and some cultural and religious beliefs in Iranian society, working women were used to examine their experiences to explain the spiritual and cultural factors affecting sexuality. This qualitative research whose information was obtained through face-to-face interviews with semi-structured and open-ended questionnaires and Interviews were conducted with 26 working women to examine their experiences to explain the spiritual and cultural factors affecting sexuality. The method of sampling was purposeful and data analysis was performed using qualitative content analysis by MAXQDA software. Data analysis from interviews resulted in the formation of 223 primary inferential codes, 1 main category and 4 subcategories. The results of data analysis are presented in a main category including “the effectiveness of spirituality and culture on sexuality”. This main category consists of four subcategories “Committed behavior”, “Ideas related to paying attention to the sexual needs of the spouse”, “Excessive expectations from working women” and “Promoting beliefs”. The experiences of working women showed that Spiritual and cultural factors in Iranian society affect sexuality. This effect is in most cases a positive effect on sexuality and in a few cases has a negative effect on sexuality.