BEIRUT: More than one in five Lebanese have premarital or extramarital sex, and two-thirds of those are between 15 and 24 years old. That is just one of the reasons Faysal al-Kak wanted to have this seminar.
The senior lecturer in health sciences and clinical associate at the women’s health center at the AUB Medical Center was speaking Thursday night at an event on contraception methods for adolescents in Lebanon. He advocated for lifting the taboo on using Intrauterine Devices (IUDs) as birth control among adolescents.
His colleagues at AUBMC also discussed the pros and cons of using oral contraceptives versus other, more invasive forms of birth control for women, outlining rates of youngsters abandoning their use and what methods were best to ensure safe sex and avoiding unwanted pregnancies.
Kak sees these sorts of events as crucial to approaching sexuality in a healthy, positive way, one that emphasizes sexual rights, consent, nonviolence and pleasure in a society where talk of sex is more likely to shut the conversation down and draw deep blushes from the audience.
Kak said discussions of contraception are increasingly important in Lebanon because teen pregnancy is a problem.
“It’s not an epidemic but it’s happening, it’s there, it’s an issue,” the lecturer said.
Kak estimated that about 25 to 30 percent of all pregnancies in Lebanon are actually unplanned, though it is difficult to get accurate figures because abortion is illegal. He said he sees about three or four cases a month of unplanned pregnancy.
To help with that, Kak spent four years working with the Lebanese government and the U.N. Population Fund on a sex-ed school curriculum that was signed into law in 2010, and to train some 3,000 teachers in how to implement it.
He also set up a network for Arab scholars who conduct research into sexuality and sexual health in the region to try and promote a healthy view of sexuality.
Kak has been working on issues related to sexuality and sexual health for 15 years, and said his aim is to make the issue “more human” in conservative societies.
Through clinical and research work, he wants sexuality in the Arab context to be devoid of “badmouthing or slut-shaming.”
Kak represented the Arab region in a global consultation, in which the World Health Organization was involved, on the issues of sexuality and sexual health.
He said it was important to use such consultations to push the concept of advancing sexual rights in the region, particularly in terms of the LGBT community, as well as advancing the concept of sexual health by sharing more data on sexual mores and attitudes in the region.
In addition to sharing data, Kak advocated reaching out to health care workers and doctors on best practices when it comes to asking a patient about sexual health here.
The idea is to be able to ask patients basic questions about their sexual health without shaming them and while showing acceptance of “non-conformist” sexual attitudes.
Kak himself had carried out two sex change surgeries on two Lebanese patients after getting legal approval for the operations, and has also encountered more than three dozen cases of hymenoplasty – a surgery that allows women to reattach a hymen in order to show future husbands that they are virgins.
Many men in Lebanon prefer virgins when choosing the women they intend to marry, whether or not they themselves had premarital sex.
The procedure is not technically illegal in Lebanon, though some see it as a form of fraud.
Kak sees the motivation for women to carry out hymenoplasty in Lebanon as essentially capitalistic, a way to “re-engage into the social market” that is not that different from a nose job or a breast enhancement.
He said the women who do it are “maximizing their chance in society to gain better options” by having more choice in their marriages. He doesn’t see it as a form of lying.
“It’s very smart,” he said.
But more importantly, talking about sexuality without prejudice or a sense that it is taboo can help Lebanon and the Arab world grapple with sexual dysfunctions.
“If we don’t get along with our sexuality we are not going to reduce problems related to sexuality,” he said. “That’s the whole issue.”
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