Introduction
The field of sexuality research is a fast-growing area of study which attracts numerous sociologists and psychologists. It has become especially popular in recent years when people have become freer to talk about their sexuality. With the rapid growth of Internet connection, it is also easier to connect people who live in distant and closed places. As for this essay, it will present some considerations on the discussion of sexuality perception among young women in contemporary Iran. This topic is inspired by the recent massive women’s protests in Iran, which the Iranian government violently suppressed. These demonstrations started after a 22-year-old woman died after being arrested by morality police for minor violations of the Islamic dress code (Fahim, 2022). The great courage of Islamic women, a significant part of which is young, showed the need to explore their attitudes on basic questions of sexuality. Survey method will answer the proposed research question because it helps build descriptive data on relatively unexplored phenomena under question.
Research Question and Design
The research question is an integral part of qualitative and quantitative research. It outlines the subject on which the study tries to answer. In the proposed study, the research question sounds “How do young Iranian women perceive their sexuality?” From this wording, it is seen that the sample of respondents will be more than one. It is made specifically to understand the research problem in a broader way. At the same time, the results will not have significant external validity, which may apply to other Muslim states, because there is no need to collect extremely large databases for regression analysis.
As for the research design, the study will be mostly descriptive. In formal terminology, “study design” means “the set of methods and procedures used to collect and analyze data on variables specified in a particular research question” (Aggarwal & Ranganathan, 2019, p. 34). In general, descriptive research design does not necessarily demand the use of variables because its aim may be the systematic collection of information to describe certain phenomena. Thus, this approach is the most beneficial for the description of Iranian women’s perception of sexuality. Firstly, there is a lack of up-to-date sources targeting youth rather than the entire female population. Knowing the increased interest of young women in the global trends on sexuality, it is highly informative to describe their worldview. Secondly, it is hard to engage more elaborate methods in the study design without coherent knowledge of the current state of affairs. A descriptive study helps to develop an in-depth understanding of the topic for further research. Thus, the uncertainties and deep research gaps in the topic make using descriptive design the most suitable.
Justification of Research Methods
The designation of a study as descriptive does not uncover how the research will be conducted. The reason is that there are various forms: observational, case study method, or survey research (Hyde, 2019). In this particular study, the survey method will be a foundational one. Hyde (2019) warns about the widespread issues of conducting surveys, one of which is sampling. Hyde (2019) indicates: “an excellent method of sampling in research in which each member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample” (p. 45). Due to the impossibility of entering Iran to conduct ground surveys, the main feature of this particular study will be the use of the Internet as a key sampling penetration tool. Such a decision can be justified by the rapid growth of Internet users in Iran: according to the World Bank (2020), 84% of people use the Internet, although in 2014, it was only 39%. Therefore, the Internet seems to be a great field for sending questionnaires to participants.
The identification of age and Iranian residentship will be determined through social media and direct questions in private messages. The link to the Google form with all the questions will be sent as an attachment. For inclusivity, there will be a blank space for participants’ own words in some multiple-choice questions. The honest evaluation of such an approach shows that the problem of refusal and subsequent volunteer bias greatly impact the Iranian context (Hyde, 2019). Minority Rights Group International (2019) reports that the practices of surveillance and high pressure from the men community make many women salient about their problems, especially concerning their sexuality. In addition, Iran placed 116 out of 153 countries in the ranking of legal discrimination against women by the World Economic Forum (2018). It shows that there should be a great work of proper sampling for satisfactory internal validity in this kind of study.
The logic of the described methodology implies that the study will be cross-sectional. It means that the measurement of young women’s perception of their sexuality will be made at a concrete point in time, without the aim to trace gradual changes. A longitudinal study, the other strategy, is applicable for identifying cause-and-effect relationships, while the descriptive nature of this study demands concrete results of the current situation.
Participants Recruitment Strategy
The biggest complexity for such a study of distant places is formulating coherent strategies for participant recruitment. First of all, it is necessary to outline all the predicted complexities. Lack of Arabic language skills makes a successful contact with Arabic speakers nearly impossible. Although one of the options is to make a questionnaire in Arabic with the help of translators, closer communication cannot be carried out. In addition, the already voiced risk of a large number of refusals to communicate on topics of sexuality also creates a tangible barrier.
Speaking of concrete steps, the initial step is to choose social media for searching. According to Stattcounter (2022), the overwhelming majority of Iranians use Instagram. Another advantage of using Instagram is that it is the last global social network in Iran that is not blocked by the authorities (“Iran’s last unblocked social media”, 2022). Then, it seems that the age limit cannot be theoretically justified so that the age gap will be 18-25 years. As for the drawbacks, Instagram does not allow search users by state. Thus, the search will be built around Instagram accounts of local Iranian celebrities, stores, and media. One may see the huge list of personal pages by clicking on the list of “followers”. To avoid bias, choosing politically neutral accounts from which sampling will start is also important.
The result of the study will not generalize to a large extent, for example, to all Muslim or Arab states. The reason is that this study is not comparative or cross-country. Nevertheless, there is hope that the results will provide some valuable information for the academic community. The sampling will be highly randomized, so some description of different young women’s perspectives on sexuality will be surely achieved. Some barriers to generalizability may occur if the audience of Instagram is not representative of all young population in Iran. For example, it may be the case that the Instagram audience in Iran appreciates Western values, while some more conservative women deny the use of social media.
Discussion and Conclusion
In the final part, some reflection on the proposed study will conclude the paper. It seems that the research question formed in such a way is a great opportunity to train a descriptive research design survey method. Although Hyde (2019) criticized some inaccuracies of the survey method in sexuality research, it is still considered a fundamental strategy. The possible improvement of research design is the use of a mixed methodology. For example, mixing surveys with in-depth interviews may bring more information on young Iranian women’s perceptions of their sexuality. Nevertheless, there are some concerns about how to mix “how” questions answered from surveys with “why” questions answered from interviews.
As for the paper’s content, firstly, the research question demanded the use of descriptive methods because their main advantage is that they may help explore new themes in the field. The great Internet penetration in closed authoritarian Iran suggested that the survey method may be the best strategy. Instagram is the only popular social media that is not blocked in Iran, so the main respondents will be recruited from there. In order to formulate a comprehensive survey, a full review of the literature on the topic of young people’s perception of their sexuality in other Muslim authoritarian regimes should be carried out.
References
Aggarwal, R., & Ranganathan, P. (2019). Study designs: Part 2 – descriptive studies.Perspectives in Clinical Research, 10(1), 34-36. Web.
Fahim, K. (2022). Anger against Iran’s ‘morality police’ erupts after death of Mahsa Amini.The Washington Post. Web.
Hyde, J. (2019). Understanding Human Sexuality. Mc Graw Hill.
Iran’s last unblocked social media: Instagram and all its discontents. (2022). RightsCon. Web.
Minority Rights Group International. (2019). Beyond the veil: Discrimination against women in Iran. Web.
Stattcounter. (2022). Social media stats Islamic Republic of Iran Aug 2021 – Aug 2022 [Line graph]. Web.
The World Bank. (2020). Individuals using the Internet (% of population) – Iran, Islamic Rep [Infographic]. Web.
World Economic Forum. (2018). The global gender gap report 2017. Web.