“I have taken your izzath (honour), so you can’t betray me”: Young people’s lived experiences of navigating sexual norms and violence in Bangladesh

Abstract

Limited sexual health communication between young people and adults combined with widespread gender discrimination restrict young people’s access to reliable information and services in Bangladesh. Although taboos around sexuality have been documented in health research, there is little in-depth research on how young people navigate socio-sexual norms in their everyday lives. The objective of this article is to identify and discuss perceived socio-sexual norms and how young people experience and navigate these. This article is based on ethnographic data generated in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2019 as part of the first author’s doctoral research. Using thematic analysis, we draw on experiences of sexual norms and violence from in-depth biographical interviews with 46 individuals aged 18 to 24 from middle- or working-class backgrounds. Young people identified sexual abstinence before marriage as a key norm and highlighted several challenges when trying to negotiate this norm in practice. Widespread perception that penetrative sex “bonds” a person to one sexual partner for life contributes to coercive behaviour. Experiences of, and silence around, sexual abuse and harassment affects young people’s confidence in subsequent sexual interactions. Young people described lives punctuated by violence that helped ensure a lack of justice for survivors. Limited sexual health communication between young people and adults combined with widespread gender discrimination restrict young people’s access to reliable information and services in Bangladesh. Although taboos around sexuality have been documented in health research, there is little in-depth research on how young people navigate socio-sexual norms in their everyday lives. The objective of this article is to identify and discuss perceived socio-sexual norms and how young people experience and navigate these. This article is based on ethnographic data generated in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2019 as part of the first author’s doctoral research. Using thematic analysis, we draw on experiences of sexual norms and violence from in-depth biographical interviews with 46 individuals aged 18 to 24 from middle- or working-class backgrounds. Young people identified sexual abstinence before marriage as a key norm and highlighted several challenges when trying to negotiate this norm in practice. Widespread perception that penetrative sex “bonds” a person to one sexual partner for life contributes to coercive behaviour. Experiences of, and silence around, sexual abuse and harassment affects young people’s confidence in subsequent sexual interactions. Young people described lives punctuated by violence that helped ensure a lack of justice for survivors.

Keywords:

• sexuality
• violence
• Bangladesh
• norms
• qualitative research

Abbreviations

SRH	=	Sexual and reproductive health
SGD	=	sexual and gender diverse
IPV	=	Intimate partner violence

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank research assistants Malisha Farzana, Nayeem Hasan, Tanzila Tabassum, and Ripon Islam for their support during the data generation period.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, PA, upon reasonable request.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at North South University, Bangladesh (Reference 2019/OR-NSU/IRB-No.0410) and the Research Ethics Committee at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (Reference 14,703). All participants provided written informed consent for their own participation.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK under Grant number [ES/J500021/1], and AIR@InnoHK administered by Innovation and Technology Commission. The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.