Anorgasmia in Iranian Culture: The Queen’s Passivity

Abstract

The studies conducted on the prevalence of the lifelong form of anorgasmia in Iran indicate clear differences in its prevalence in women in Iranian culture compared to western culture. The authors have attributed such differences to the differences in assessment tools, sample size, and poor study methods, as well as cultural barriers to the use of questionnaires, and the effects of culture on sexual disorders. In this article this issue has been formulated from a cultural concept of passivity. In Iranian culture, passivity is regarded as one of the dominant roles of women in sex, which can be called “The Queen’s Passivity”. Indeed, this special kind of passivity before men has certain privileges for the woman as a queen. This is “passivity resulting in authority”, which is an important feature of this culture and all evidence suggests that passivity and anorgasmia accompany each other in this culture and the profound meaning of its suffering should be somewhat sought in the “man king-queen’s passivity” relationship, which has denied many Iranian women the experience of pleasure of orgasm for thousands of years. This hypothesis has been explained by making reference to important cultural and religious resources in Iranian culture in this article and it has been argued that if anorgasmia can be better explained culturally, then this problem should not be considered a psychiatric disorder. This point is not taken into account in DSM5 diagnostic criteria for anorgasmia and the lack of attention to this issue can be one of the reasons for the greater report of anorgasmia in Iran.