Out of 22 Arab countries, only one — Tunisia — has introduced sexual education in schools. It’s a dismal statistic; one that motivated the two female founders of Mauj to create the sexual and menstrual wellness platform for women in the Arab world in 2020. They remain anonymous so that they can challenge societal norms and dismantle concepts of shame, safely. “Mauj is the sex education we never got and wish we had,” they tell MOJEH. “It’s an invitation to explore our bodies, solo or otherwise.”
Shrouded In Stigma
While initiatives like Mauj exist today to help teach women about their bodies, sexual health is a topic that remains taboo in Arab communities — mostly due to cultural beliefs that centre family honour. “There can be a fear that open discussions and access to sexual and reproductive health knowledge and services, especially pre-marriage, could promote sexual activity outside marriage and damage a family’s reputation,” explains Noor Jaber, founder of Nawat Health, a digital platform that provides sexual health services and educational programmes for women in the Middle East. Through Nawat, women can also anonymously book consultations with experts to have judgment-free, one-on-one consultations to discuss their concerns. A public health researcher and practitioner with a decade of experience working in disaster management, maternal and child health and sexual and reproductive health, Noor became the recipient of The Bicester Collection’s ‘Unlock her Future’ prize in 2023. The award money contributed to Nawat’s startup costs, platform development and production of educational programmes.
Noor tells MOJEH that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), sexual health is not just about sexually-transmitted infections or sexual dysfunctions, but refers to the state of physical, emotional, mental and social wellbeing related to sexuality. And while these topics are rarely discussed openly in the Middle East today, the founders of Mauj point out that female sexuality was once celebrated during Islam’s Golden Age: “Manuscripts were written about how to pleasure a woman — one of the most famous ones is The Perfumed Garden. This led to honest and productive conversations about sexuality and intimacy, which are absolutely natural and essential.” However, this appetite for accessible conversations surrounding sex has been replaced with a tendency to police women’s bodies, in some cases leading to invasive practices such as virginity tests, as well as female genital mutation — which have zero basis in religion or science. “On the one end, we see this medical invasion of women’s bodies and privacies, while on the other end of the spectrum, women are denied access to healthcare. The message on both ends is the same: your body does not belong to you,” say Mauj’s founders.
The Dangers of Misinformation
Yet, inaccessibility of sexual health information and services leads to a wide-scale lack of understanding of basic sexual functions — from identifying body parts, to comprehending concepts like consent and protection. Citing the results of a poll, Maju’s founders tell MOJEH that 82 per cent of women reported they were afraid to ask their husbands or boyfriends to use a condom, and that current use of condoms among women in Arab nations is under three per cent on average. Often when Arab women get married, they are suddenly expected to become sexually active without having been given any accurate information about sexual health — from parents, or schooling. Many women resort to the internet, online pornography or friends’ stories as sources of information. “These are often inaccurate and potentially harmful to equitable gender norms,” stresses Noor.
One common consequence of this collective silence is vaginismus — a psychological condition where sex becomes unbearably painful, and even impossible, for some women. “Vaginismus finds its roots in a fear of intercourse and manifests itself physically through involuntary and often painful contractions in the pelvic floor muscles surrounding the vagina,” explain the Mauj founders, adding that it’s one of the leading causes of unconsummated marriages in the Arab world today. Cultural norms often prioritise male satisfaction and pleasure, ignoring female sexual desires altogether. This gender dynamic imbalance can manifest in intimate partner violence and sexual harassment, which of course occurs across all cultures and continents and is by no means exclusive to a specific region. It impacts women’s sexual health through both physical and emotional trauma, and a subsequent fear of intimacy. “Women often do not seek support due to stigma or fear of being seen,” says Noor, emphasising that access to sexual health resources will only help to create healthy long-term relationships with partners and better self-esteem, which can help women feel positive about sexuality.
Shifting Perspectives
Unlearning shame-led teachings is crucial to forming a healthy perspective on sex, sexuality and sexual health. “So much of it starts with our willingness to work on conditioning ourselves, so that the cycle of shame ends with us,” say the founders of Mauj, who recently released a line of T-shirts that demystify shame and celebrate autonomy. They have also created devices and massage oils for use during intimacy.
Confidence and pleasure, after all, are just as vital to sexual health awareness as the biological functions and phases that a woman’s body goes through. From puberty to pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause, each phase requires different forms of education and support, and this October the GCC will be hosting its first-ever Menopause Summit at Dubai’s Museum of the Future. The event will bring together clinicians, healthcare practitioners and fitness experts in open discussions around perimenopause and menopause to help women understand how to navigate these changes in our bodies. “Our goal is to change the narrative around menopause, making it something we embrace rather than fear. It’s just another stage of life that we can approach with confidence and positivity,” says GCC Menopause Summit co-founder Sharon James.
Having lived in the UAE for 14 years, Sharon is a menopause coach who offers tailored guidance, accurate information, coping strategies and emotional support to women managing menopause, and also advises corporations on how to implement menopause support in the workplace. “We know that women’s health issues have been shrouded in secrecy and stigma, and menopause is no exception,” says Sharon. She tells MOJEH that while it may come at a later stage of life, menopause is a critical aspect of sexual health. “Hormonal changes during menopause, particularly the decrease in estrogen, can lead to symptoms such as vaginal dryness, decreased libido and discomfort during intercourse due to the thinning of the vaginal walls. These symptoms can profoundly affect a woman’s sexual experience and intimacy,” she explains.
Emphasising Honesty, In Real Life and Online
Sharon believes that although conversations around menopause remain “subdued” in the region, the UAE is making progress, with its recent announcement of the National Policy for Improving Women’s Health and also by hosting the first GCC Menopause Summit. “The summit is for all women; even the younger generation should understand menopause before they actually reach it, not like me who had no clue until I was in perimenopause at 45,” she says
While in-person events are crucial to cultivating community and breaking stigmas surrounding sexual health, the digital world has also been immensely transformative, allowing women to reach out for help anonymously from the comfort of their homes. “Social media platforms, despite censorship, are creating spaces for discussions around sexual health, and influencers and online communities are sparking curiosity and normalising seeking information,” explains Noor.
With over 70,000 followers, Egyptian-Thai Amirah Zaky has been using Instagram to raise awareness about sexual health and vaginismus since 2018, and now offers online courses for both men and women. Amirah believes that because she is a visibly Muslim woman, her followers, who may be wary of seeking help off-screen, feel comfortable approaching her about their sex-related concerns. “I incorporate religion and spirituality into the work I do but in a balanced, compassionate and understanding way,” Amirah tells MOJEH. “Most girls and women have only experienced the harsh or extreme sides of religion, especially when it comes to these types of topics."
Taking Back Control
Mauj also owes much of its growth to Instagram, where it has over 90,000 followers – yet has struggled with increasing censorship and shadow bans on social media around content relating to periods, pleasure and sex. To help regain control over accessibility and visibility, both Mauj and Nawat will be launching their own apps later this year. And while both are making significant headway in improving access to sex education and sexual health awareness, there is still much work to be done.
“We still have a really, really long way to go in normalising and destigmatising our health, bodies, sexuality and pleasure,” say the Mauj founders. From improving the medical system to imploring the legal system to take harsher action against perpetrators of gender- based violence, extensive change must take place on a cultural level to empower women with bodily autonomy. “The media needs to stop glorifying unhealthy gender dynamics and chastising women for their decisions; the education system needs to be radically transformed to include effective sex education programmes — the list goes on and on,” they add. “But what matters is that the change has begun. The tide is turning.”
As women, we too must do our part to speed along the flow of change, starting from our own homes. We can educate our children to ensure that equal gender dynamics are central to their principles, and we can create safe spaces for open discussion, so that our daughters aren’t subjugated to the same shame, stigma and secrecy that we were raised with.
