Sex is a pretty touchy topic in the Egyptian society. People are unable to openly speak about it and the ones who practice premarital sex do everything in their power to keep it a secret. Why? All of this because the human sexuality is just one major source of discomfort for Egyptians.
In many parts of the world, sex education is one of the main parts of the educational system. Teens learn about different forms of how to practice safe sex; they discuss sexually transmitted diseases among other things. This is all done to ensure that teens or young adults make an educated choice when it comes to sexual intercourse.
Due to Egypt's sensitive stance on this topic, proper awareness about sexual intercourse, whether among young teens or married couples, is basically nonexistent. Meanwhile however, more and more teenagers are sexually active without any knowledge of safe sex practices. Married couples also are unaware of many aspects of having a healthy sex life, and therefore, many cheat, resulting in divorce.
Egypt's culture, traditions, strong religious values and family core values create a strong barrier between the growing youth and safe sex, which results in a ton of misinformation. Little or no knowledge is known about contraception methods and very little is known about sexually transmitted diseases. This often leads to disastrous tales of back-alley abortions and untreated diseases – all these situations could have been prevented if there were open means of communication.
Curiosity about sex and sexual desires are pretty natural steps in developing teens. Discussing this "uncomfortable" topic could be very beneficial way for parents or teachers to instill family values and cultural traditions. For instance, we are in a country that frowns upon premarital sex, this can be part of the discussion and educational course simply because if this topic has never been up for discussion before, adolescents will most likely be confused and very unperceptive of the message.
In this day and age, sex is a big part of the everyday life. It's in the music, shows, films, advertisements, etc. If parents and the Egyptian educational system fail to provide youth with proper sex education, these kids are most likely to learn about it from somewhere else simply because with all the current technology, monitoring what they are exposed to 24/7 is impossible.
The lack of knowledge about sex in couples and married people has a different set or repercussions that are as dangerous and problematic. According to the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), more than 40 percent percent of married Egyptian couples end up divorced simply because men and women do not know how to deal with their partner sexually.
According to Heba Kotb, Egypt's only licensed sexologist, the issue is usually about the miscommunication and misunderstanding of what men and women want sexually and attributes a whopping 80 percent of divorces to sexual issues.
Many problems in our society can be resolved if people were to accept and understand human sexuality. Instead of dismissing sex and the natural human desire for intimacy and sexual fulfillment as "forbidden" and "haram," we, as a society of all ages and cultural backgrounds, need to open up about the subject to ensure that a country of 90 million are not all sexually illiterate.