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Lived Experiences of Limited Sexual and Reproductive Health Education Among Egyptian Women
In Egypt, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education remains largely absent from national education and youth policy frameworks, reflecting a broader governance gap at the intersection of education, health, and gender policy. This qualitative study explores how the lack of formal sexuality educa...
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AUC Knowledge Fountain
2026
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| Summary: | In Egypt, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education remains largely absent from national education and youth policy frameworks, reflecting a broader governance gap at the intersection of education, health, and gender policy. This qualitative study explores how the lack of formal sexuality education shapes women’s knowledge, perceptions, and sexual and reproductive experiences across the life course, drawing on in-depth interviews with twelve Egyptian women from diverse marital backgrounds. The findings point to persistent gaps in basic SRH knowledge, early exposure to shame and stigma, and reliance on informal and often unreliable sources of information, which participants linked to fear of intimacy, misconceptions surrounding consent and virginity, constrained sexual and contraceptive autonomy, and delayed access to appropriate medical care. While the study does not seek to produce generalizable claims, nor to establish a direct or linear causal relationship between the absence of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and specific health or relational outcomes, it offers an explanatory analysis of how limited access to structured SRH knowledge is associated with patterns of vulnerability, constrained autonomy, and delayed care, as described by participants. The study argues that comprehensive sexuality education, defined as age-appropriate, curriculum-based education addressing bodily knowledge, consent, relationships, and reproductive health, represents one potential public policy tool that can contribute to more informed decision-making, improved wellbeing, and gender-responsive development in Egypt. |
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