Re: Sex Education & Muslim Youth
**Bottomline, Sex in itself is not a bad thing. It is indeed a necessity for ALMOST all humans. It is how you perform it, and who you perform it with, can be debated.
Please don't quote me on this, and may Allah (SWT) forgive me for saying this if i am wrong, but i read somewhere that making love to your spouse is a form of Ibadah too because by doing that you are fulfilling your basic needs and doing it with your spouse keeps you from committing a sin (Adultry).**
Someone needs to get through this to the heads of desi parents who think its okay to tell their kids "Now don't go off thinking about this sex wex, its all gandaghi" and leave it at that. I know that is how my mother dealt with it, and I learned everything through an encyclopedia (well before I heard about it at school). I even knew the full menstrual cycle with hormones (LH, FSH, etc) by the time I was in 4th grade. My mother actually didn't let me sit in the sex ed classes (in elementary school, parents can opt a kid out of those classes), and the funny thing was that I already knew way more than the kids in the class did. I've told this to my mom, and she was totally in disbelief. Apparently, my dad's boss gifted us a children's encyclopedia set, the 15th volume of which was a Parenting Guide, which I read thoroughly because it had wonderful pictures of interesting infections and diseases in the pediatric population. Of course there was a chapter on adolescents and sexual and reproductive topics. Whatever I didn't get, I was looking up at the library. All this in elementary school.
My parents still don't believe it to this day.
And its because I actually chanced upon the topic being explained in a more scientific and mature way that my attitutude towards sex is not that of fear or disgust.
The way a kid is taught sex and reproduction is highly important. Even little boys should know about menstruation etc, I think. Its very important - generates a great deal more respect for women as they get older.