It is no secret that any topic revolving around sex and sexuality is taboo in Pakistan. Anyone talking about sex and puberty is greeted with cold stares and a reminder that you need to be more modest. My parents never gave me the ‘Talk’. It is possible that their parents never talked to them about it, and so they thought that it was normal for children to figure out on there,
or maybe they did not know how to approach this topic. Whatever the reason may be, I got my information about sexuality and puberty from everyone and everything but my parents or teachers.
This meant that I had to figure everything out on my own, and it resulted in me getting partial or incorrect knowledge from my peers in school. I remember that there was once a popular song with the word ‘sexy’ in it; I think it was called ‘Sheela ki jawani’ or something similar. I was probably around 8 or 10 years old, so I did not know what it meant. I only knew that it was a bad word and that the adults told me not to say it out loud whenever I sang the song. This made me curious and led to some silly discussions with my peers at school. A few of them said that it was some dance and others said that it meant taking your clothes off, but everyone agreed that it was something ‘bad’. It sounds silly when I think about it now, but we sternly believed it.
When I hit puberty, I started experiences changes in my body, like one usually does. I was confused since I had little knowledge of how puberty works, and the changes I was experiencing were normal. I think I started to feel insecure about myself after that. I was surprised and somewhat embarrassed about hair popping up on every part of my body. I was also getting urges and sensation which I could not understand. All this made my teenage a bizarre time. It would have been easier for me to have responsible adults who I could freely talk to about what I felt going through these, or even some sort of sex education class at school that told me that all this is normal.
This blog was just some things I could think of about my time as a teenager. This was not very structured, but I hope that you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading!