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Shahram Rafizadeh

The director of the "Family Health Clinic" announced last week that based on conducted studies, ‎‎50 percent of divorce cases are rooted in sexual problems. Kazem Foroutan also warned about ‎‎"bigotry in discussing sexual issues" and affirmed the need to approach sexual issues from a ‎scientific perspective: "An emotional approach to sexual issues will cause even more problems ‎than." ‎

This is the second time in the past five months that the director of the Family Health Clinic has ‎issued a warning about the increasing role of sexual problems in divorces. In December of 2007, ‎while conducting the "Family and Sexual Health" conference - the name of which was changed ‎under government pressure to "Family and Reproduction" - Foroutan announced: "Between 50 to ‎‎60 percent of divorce cases in Iran are due to sexual problems and disorders." ‎

At the same conference, Foroutan counted "sexual incompetence" among men and "absence of ‎sexual desires" among women as the most common forms of sexual disorders, adding, "Many ‎families are not aware of the existence of these problems and this causes family arguments and ‎disputes, culminating in divorce." ‎

According to the head of the Family Health Clinic, "No programs are in place to solve a problem ‎of such magnitude, and we have no institutions or governmental organizations to control it, ‎whereas for an issue like diabetes, which concerns 7 percent of the population at the most, we ‎have so many policies and governmental organizations." ‎

Meanwhile, the results of a research project identifying the connection between divorce and ‎sexual disorders, conducted recently by Mansoureh and Mozhgan Amirian, members of the Azad ‎University's board and Zohreh Yazdani, a psychology student from Shiraz, demonstrate that the ‎‎"constant tension between partners arising out of an atmosphere of violence and anger foils ‎sweet and romantic moments, not leaving a place for the satisfaction of sexual desires and ‎commencement of sexual relations." ‎

According to this study, which was conducted by passing questionnaires to 120 women attending ‎the Shiraz family court's mediation center, "68.1 percent of women do not have sexual desires, ‎and 59.1 percent describe 'anger' as the feeling they get after having sex with their partner. 63.9 ‎percent of women in the study say that they do not enjoy sex, and 66.8 percent say that they do ‎not feel affection from their partner after sex." According to the study, "in general, the average ‎rate of sexual satisfaction among women seeking divorce was far less than among women not ‎seeking divorce." ‎

Though a majority of experts are warning about the spread of sexual disorders among Iranian ‎couples, government officials oppose and even ban everything that is related to sex, even the use ‎of phrases such as "sexual relations" or "sex education." ‎