World Contraception Day: The Importance of Educating Young Women

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By: Saba Ismail, one of the Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders and program manager of the “Sahailee Hotline”

In Pakistan, talking about sexual and reproductive health, sexuality and contraception is considered taboo. The truth is, Pakistan is a conservative country and the people here have feudal norms and culture. Young people cannot talk about contraception nor discuss it with their friends – when they do, they are considered vulgar. They’re not allowed to ask questions about topics like contraception because their use is considered a sin, and some doctors won’t give their patients permission to use contraception because they consider it anti-Islamic. According many people’s religious beliefs, women shouldn’t use contraception because children are “a gift from God” and we should not reject such a precious gift. The only way doctors recommend that husbands and wives stop having children is by avoiding intercourse altogether – they make no mention of modern contraception. People here believe that if someone does not want to produce children, they should just avoid intercourse.

As the program manager of the “Sahailee Hotline,” which means female friend in Urdu, I am working to change these norms and to raise awareness among young women. It is a program of Aware Girls launched to provide information about contraception, safe medical abortion, post partum hemorrhage and sexual and reproductive health and rights. We believe that the hotline is a very powerful tool because every woman can access it, at any time free of charge. We can bring change by giving information to young people, and we receive a tremendous amount of calls from women all around Pakistan.

But we are still facing many challenges. Myths around contraception persist including that a woman’s figure and body shape will be ruined from its usage. The majority of people have a strong belief that if they use contraceptives, they will become sterile and it will affect their future pregnancies. Another assumption is that boys and girls under 18 are “too young” to have sexual and reproductive health information and services – but this assumption completely ignores their realities and violates young people’s right to acquire practical knowledge and the skills they need to protect themselves and their partners from STIs/HIV, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions or childbirth related complications, and sexual abuse or violence. Lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services make young people vulnerable to high-risk behaviors, unsafe abortions, unwanted pregnancies, and STIs. Additionally, young people who seek reproductive health services often face judgmental health providers who offer neither confidentiality nor privacy.

Aware Girls strongly believes that young women are much more likely to adopt and maintain safe behaviors. Therefore, it is important to educate young women on contraceptives and sexual and reproductive health and rights. For this reason, Aware Girls has undertaken efforts to educate young women of rural areas and equip them with information regarding contraceptives and sexual and reproductive health and rights. It is one of the most innovative interventions of its kind, which has been implemented in District Swabi, Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan and Karak of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan covering up to 4,000 young women, 350 teachers from 40 public and private schools over a period of three years. The program was well received by students, teachers, and communities. The main features of the education program were:

   1. Conducting a Pre-KAP Survey to gather information about the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of young women
   2. Selecting  schools and colleges for women from the public and private sector
   3. Conducting contraception and sexual and reproductive health and rights education sessions in the target schools and colleges using interactive and rights-based approaches
   4. Establishing discussion clubs in the target schools and colleges with the goal of relating contraception and sexual and reproductive information among young women and reducing the stigma and discrimination related to it
   5. Training teacher and students volunteers of discussion club in peer education, behavior change communication, and group management
   6. Conducting Post-KAP survey to measure the impact of the education program.

I, myself, access information about contraception through the internet and by seeking out experts in this field. It is a basic right of young people to have access to information and services related to contraception. And I believe that we can deliver the necessary information by using different and innovative approaches. Aware Girls is just one example – using the education program described above along with new tools like social media and Facebook to give more information to the young women of Pakistan.

This blog is part of a series on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day.

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