Sexuality and young women born into Muslim families.: A phenomenological study

Abstract

Sexuality represents a fundamental aspect of our lives as human beings; it significantly affects identity. Other influential factors include sociocultural context, ethnicity or race, religion, and so on. Women have fought for decades against patriarchal oppression. The following presents the situation of intersectional discrimination faced by migrant women, which is intimately related to their experiences of sexuality. The objective of this research is to understand, in their entirety, the experiences of young Muslim women that influence their sexuality. The design presents a qualitative study based on Husserl's phenomenology, employing interviews with women who grew up in Muslim families as the data collection technique. The data were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed, following the procedure developed by Colaizzi. From the analysis of these studies, three main themes emerged: (1) Family honor as a moral imperative, (2) Fragile childhood lacking sex education, and (3) Neither here, nor there; living in a cultural limbo. Education, as a path to social change, and the feminist struggle, are inclusive if they do not exclude Muslim women.