When Neelam Punjani was growing up in Pakistan, sexual health was a taboo topic. So when “I had my first period, I didn’t know how things work. I had to ask my mom, ‘Is it cancer? Am I dying?’”
When Punjani came to the University of Alberta for her PhD, her work focused on bridging the gap between the sexual health knowledge of first-and second-generation immigrants by helping them discuss it together. That included routine things like menstruation, as well as more traumatic, too-often-unspoken topics.
“One girl had been raped multiple times by her boyfriend, and she said ‘I cannot even tell my parents I’m sexually active — how can I tell them I’ve been raped?’”
Through research, published papers, workshops, and online and interactive tools in collaboration with Alberta Health Services, Punjani has expanded her expertise to reach all Albertans. And while sexual health discussions are less taboo here, she worries that “we’re taking a step back,” citing the Premier’s 10-point transgender policy plan, which requires schools to tell parents if their child changes their chosen name or pronoun, and to get parental approval for their child to receive any instruction on gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality at all.
Punjani believes these changes will make children less safe from bigoted parents, and could lead the children to self-harm or suicide. But even straight, cis kids whose conservative parents ban them from instruction “are still going to learn the information — it will just be from their friends, or online, and they won’t be fully informed.”
But overall, Punjani hears more and more positive parental stories each day. “They are telling us how they have started talking with their kids about sexual health, and that it was a positive experience. And that’s so important — because of safety, but also because when you’re talking about physical health, and mental health, your sexual health is just as important. You can’t separate them.”
This article appears in the Nov/Dec 2024 issue of Edify
