Beyond the talking imperative: The value of silence on sexuality in youth-parent relations in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

Research conducted in various parts of the globe suggests that young people who can openly communicate with their parents about sexuality benefit in many ways. Correspondingly, in Bangladesh, the lack of an open communication on sexuality in the youth–parent relationship is considered a barrier to ensuring young people’s sexual and reproductive health and overall well-being. Taking ‘silence’ as a core concept, this paper investigates what silence on sexuality means to Bangladeshi young people in their relationship with parents. It draws on findings from an ethnographic study conducted among 72 middle-class boys and girls aged between 15 and 19 years and 18 parents living in Dhaka over a year between 2016 and 2017. The findings suggest that silence is not always perceived as problematic by young people, and this is particularly true for topics related to sexual pleasure. This paper challenges the monolithic understanding that silence is necessarily bad and hinders young people from getting what they need. It offers an additional conceptual understanding to silence for studying sexuality among youths and designing interventions for their sexual and reproductive well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexuality
• youth
• silence
• middle-class
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the research participants for sharing their stories and the editors and the reviewers for their valuable feedback and support. Our particular thanks go to Malisha Farzana for assisting with data collection, Dr. Rahil Roodsaz and Prof. Sabina Faiz Rashid for their insightful feedback throughout developing this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For instance, The World Starts With Me by RutgersWPF, Netherlands, implemented in 10 countries in Africa and Asia that include Bangladesh. Other examples include Me and My World by UBR Bangladesh Alliance and Generation Breakthrough by UNFPA Bangladesh.

2 https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/human-rights/the-irony-restricting-access-internet-digital-bangladesh-1386799 https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/govt-blocks-510-porn-websites-1336600

3 This research is part of the research program Breaking the Shame: Towards Improving SRHR Education for Adolescents and Youth in Bangladesh, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.

4 Bangla- and English-version schools follow the same national curricula but in different languages. Expensive private English medium schools were not included to avoid the risk of including youths of a higher socioeconomic background.

5 Class-based segregation of neighbourhoods is a prominent phenomenon in Dhaka. Slum areas or upscale neighbourhoods were excluded.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under Project number W08560003.