Children in Iran will be given courses on the details of adolescence and puberty for the first time when schools reopen next month after the holidays, according to a report by The Times.
The lessons will cover any questions that pupils might raise on the topics, Rahim Ebadi, the deputy education minister, was quoted as saying.
He was speaking during a ministerial meeting on the subject, the first of its kind since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.
Sex education has been considered a taboo in Iran, but recently newspapers have been expressing concern about the problems faced by adolescents.
"All questions related to our youth have a national character and if nothing is done, it will be transformed into a crisis," Ebadi said.
Sex education in the Islamic tradition is not a forbidden topic. On the contrary, people have the right to raise questions with clerics.
Two books from the Middle Ages, Tuhfat Al Arous and Al Rawd Alter, are classic examples of the way Muslim clerics have tackled the most intimate matters in the life of Muslims.
There emerged a whole document on sex education in Islamic history called Ilm El Bah, which is a kind of instruction manual for healthy and enjoyable sexuality based on the Quran and the Prophet’s traditions – Albawaba.com
