Negotiating Discourses of Shame, Secrecy, and Silence: Migrant and Refugee Women’s Experiences of Sexual Embodiment

Abstract

In Australia and Canada, the sexual health needs of migrant and refugee women have been of increasing concern, because of their underutilization of sexual health services and higher rate of sexual health problems. Previous research on migrant women’s sexual health has focused on their higher risk of difficulties, or barriers to service use, rather than their construction or understanding of sexuality and sexual health, which may influence service use and outcomes. Further, few studies of migrant and refugee women pay attention to the overlapping role of culture, gender, class, and ethnicity in women’s understanding of sexual health. This qualitative study used an intersectional framework to explore experiences and constructions of sexual embodiment among 169 migrant and refugee women recently resettled in Sydney, Australia and Vancouver, Canada, from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka, India, and South America, utilizing a combination of individual interviews and focus groups. Across all of the cultural groups, participants described a discourse of shame, associated with silence and secrecy, as the dominant cultural and religious construction of women’s sexual embodiment. This was evident in constructions of menarche and menstruation, the embodied experience that signifies the transformation of a girl into a sexual woman; constructions of sexuality, including sexual knowledge and communication, premarital virginity, sexual pain, desire, and consent; and absence of agency in fertility control and sexual health. Women were not passive in relation to a discourse of sexual shame; a number demonstrated active resistance and negotiation in order to achieve a degree of sexual agency, yet also maintain cultural and religious identity. Identifying migrant and refugee women’s experiences and constructions of sexual embodiment are essential for understanding sexual subjectivity, and provision of culturally safe sexual health information in order to improve well-being and facilitate sexual agency.

Family planning and Afghan refugee women and men living in Melbourne, Australia: new opportunities and transcultural tensions

“…Such studies have found that many cultural groups continue to experience unmet reproductive health needs post-resettlement, including low rates of contraceptive uptake, and increased risk of unintended pregnancy Ngum Chi Watts, Liamputtong, and Carolan 2014). These issues have, in part, been attributed to inadequate contraceptive knowledge , concerns about the health risks of hormone-based contraception (Hawkey, Ussher, and Perz 2018;Rogers and Earnest 2014), religious beliefs (Ellawela et al 2017;Srikanthan and Reid 2008), and cultural norms that impede discussions of sexual and reproductive health (Rogers and Earnest 2014;Ussher et al 2017). Furthermore, several studies have described how, at times, male partners' decision-making authority overrides women's preferences to use contraception (Dengi, Koivusilta, and Ojanlatva 2006).…”

Risky Sexual Behavior and Associated Factors Among Sexually-Active Unmarried Young Female Internal Migrants Working in Burayu Town, Ethiopia

“…Young women who had received sexuality education through schools, parents or other family members were less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors in previous studies (41,42 according to the study conducted in Northwest Ethiopia (21).…”

Unraveling the Mystery of “The Specificity of Women’s Sexual Response and Its Relationship with Sexual Orientations”: The Social Construction of Sex and Sexual Identities

“…In many non-Western cultures, participation in the experimental sex research that Chivers’ reviews would be considered culturally unacceptable, with women not expected to know or talk about sex, and certainly not to view or respond to visual images of naked or copulating couples, or to exhibit same-gender desire or response (Ussher et al, 2017). In contrast, in Western societies, the proliferation of “raunch culture” is associated with increased acknowledgment of women’s agentic sexuality (Bale, 2011), including the visibility of “girl-on-girl” sex, in television shows, movies, and “girls gone wild” videos (Levy, 2005; Thompson, 2006).…”