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Abstract
Youth, Sex and Islam: internet is a very popular and effective source of information and platform of discussion about relations and sexuality for Muslim youth in the Netherlands
M.S. Meijer
Background: In many moslim family’s in the Netherlands sexuality is a difficult subject to discuss among parents and children. Therefore Sti AIDS Netherlands developed a subsite for the community website Maroc.nl for young people of Moroccan origin: Islam and Sexuality. The aim was to facilitate discussion about sexuality and to provide information well tailored to the needs of the targetgroup. The subsite offered background information on sti and aids, safe sex, homosexuality, frequently asked questions, quizzes, an emailservice to ask questions to an Imam or to sexuality experts with a Muslim background, columns and a discussion forum.
Methods: The subsite was developed based on the principles of planned intervention development. A pretest questionnaire on sexuality and safesex behaviour was executed among 463 website visitors (15-24 years) before the subsite was launched. After the intervention period Maastricht University conducted an analysis of the questionnaire as well as a qualitative analysis of the email questions and forumdiscussions.
Results: Many thousands of young Muslim people visited the website during the intervention period. The Imam received over 600 email questions. There was a very lively discussion on the forum about different sexuality issues. A lot of those regarded, virginity, sex before marriage. 85% of website visitors support the idea of virginity until marriage for girls. 78% supports this idea for boys as well. There seems to be confusion among the visitors about which rules have a cultural background and which are religion. A book to inform professionals about the outcomes of the analysis around the subsite was published in 2007: Youth, Sex and Islam.
Conclusions: Using the Internet for providing a platform for discussion about sexuality as a source of sexuality information has proven to be very successful for Muslim youth. The role of a religious leader in discussions about sexuality is very important for Muslim youth.
AIDS 2008 - XVII International AIDS Conference
Abstract no.
WEPE0501
Suggested Citation
" M.S. Meijer
Youth, Sex and Islam: internet is a very popular and effective source of information and platform of discussion about relations and sexuality for Muslim youth in the Netherlands.
:
AIDS 2008 - XVII International AIDS Conference:
Abstract no.
WEPE0501"
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