Sex education is still a widely controversial topic: while some people believe it’s essential to teach young people about sex and sexuality in schools, others argue that it’s inappropriate and should be left to parents to discuss with their children. Having “the talk” can be uncomfortable and embarrassing, and it becomes challenging if you’re part of a tiny, close-knit community like the Druze, one of the major religious groups in the Levant. There are just over one million Druze people worldwide.
They mainly live in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine, with communities also present in the US, Canada, Europe, and Latin America. “We are very much a community where if I hear someone’s last name, I will be able to place them: what country they’re from, who their family is, who their relatives are,” says Deena Naime, a Druze-born and raised in the US. “And I think that’s very important because when you come from a community like that, it also really impacts things like sexuality, sexual identity, and sexual education.
” Being part of a community where everyone knows each other makes these discussions difficult. Deena says, “Anything that you want to know, or need to know, or need to express and share, most of the time, you cannot do that without the luxury of anonymity. Anonymity is very important.
There must be a great amount of trust to have those conversations without anonymity. That trust usually happens between women when they start to have.