The importance of Sex Education.

The importance of Sex Education.

While I was scrolling through Facebook, I saw this post about sex education; the owner was from a European country; he said that proper sex education helped teenagers in their lives. Then it hit me how much we don’t appreciate the importance of sex education in my country.

When we were all young, we thought babies came to life after daddy kisses mommy, but when we reached a certain age, we learned where did babies come from but we never learned how to practice safe sex.

The question is not when we learned about sex; the question is how and who taught us, and what did we learn? Normally parents have ‘the talk’ with their kids, otherwise, sex was taught at school.

When parents don’t have ‘the talk’ with their kids and school doesn’t teach them, they turn to the internet (like me), you either find porn or you find the answers you were looking for.

I guess the problem is with the reputation Sex have in society, being raised in a Muslim country, sex was not a daily topic you can talk about with your parents, it’s understandable from a side because (according to Islam) sex shouldn’t happen until a person is married, this makes the parents not bother bringing up the subject because they think that by giving their kids proper sex education; they give them permission to have sex.

However, religion doesn’t stop some people from having sex before marriage, (That remains a very personal choice), sometimes that sex results in a pregnancy which is the worst thing that could happen to an unmarried woman in a Muslim society, she would literally get shunned, unfortunately. I would say that the absence of sex education causes all of this, the earlier you learn the better.

I’m not saying that they are uneducated, I’m saying that sex education plays a big role in the whole situation, but we can’t blame religion, because some parents don’t discuss sex education with their children because of their cultural upbringing, not their religious training.

There is no shame teaching kids how to have safe sex even if we are in a Muslim country because; as I said before; teaching your kids about safe sex doesn’t mean you give them permission to have sex

Let me give you an example, Daughter X is 15 years old and raised in a Muslim household. Her parents never discussed sex with her, the only intimate subject her mother ever talked to her about was periods. Schools don’t have sex education in this scenario. X meets Y, he is also 15 and Muslim. They date and they end up having sex, knowing nothing about safe sex, X ends up pregnant. When she turns to her mother, she beats the living hell out of her, blaming her for what had happened, and when she realizes how furious X’s dad would be, she takes her to the nearest herb shop, buys tons of herbs that would do nothing, forces X to drink it without even asking if X wanted to keep the pregnancy, after all, it’s X’s choice, not her mother’s. X then ends up miscarrying, hemorrhaging then dying.

Now, who is the villain in this story? Definitely the parents, and here’s why; if they taught X about safe sex, she would be careful. If her mother had given her a chance to decide what to do after making a mistake, she would still be alive.

In conclusion, seeing how we will be parents one day, we should be open with our children, let’s talk about sensitive subjects that our parents never brought up with us, let’s teach our kids how to be safe, let’s break the routine.

Be safe.