Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health Education 2016
Majority of the participants had a positive outlook on incorporating SRHE in
the school curriculum. They also emphasized on the importance of
incorporating the topic within the subject Islam taught in schools so that the
most accurate, religiously acceptable and age appropriate information could
be given to the students.
10.2 Perception on relationships and marriage
Almost all who participated in the FGDs claimed that it was a common
phenomenon in the society to get involved in relationships at a very early stage
of life and more than half of the respondents stated that it could happen as
early as 10 or 11 years. However, when asked about the most common age at
which Maldivians got into relationships, almost all participants stated that it
was during the early teenage years. Further, many participants who had
claimed that children in their islands began relationships at the age of 10 years
stated that it was usually around this time that children start interacting with
children from the opposite sex and these relationships usually become more
serious once these children enter their teenage years. Additionally, most
participants stated that the meaning of the term ‘relationship’ was not always
clear among youngsters and that there was a tendency to confuse friendships
with intimate relationships. It was also unclear if any of these relationships
were romantic, physically intimate or as some participants put it as, a “mimicry
of what the elders did”.
The reaction of parents towards their children being in such relationships
ranged from; approval, indifference to outright disapproval. Majority of the
parents disapprove of such conduct, especially if their children were in school.
However, some respondents highlighted that there were some parents who
disapproved of such relationships until their child completed school and
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THEMATIC ANALYSIS