The purpose of this qualitative research is to explore the perception of Iranian-American women about their sexual-selves and gender role formations. Additionally, the research discusses issues which contributed to the formation of their sexual-selves, gender roles, and gender identity, as well as the role culture plays in the lives of these women. The snowball sampling technique was used to identify the 24 participants, aged 18 years and older, among the first generation Iranian-American women living in Southern California, United States. A feminist perspective was selected to provide the theoretical framework to understand each woman's unique experience with respect to her sexual-self and life circumstances. Narrative analysis was utilized to explore the sexual life stories via individual in-depth interview. These stories included childhood to marriage in Iran, the undoing and unlearning process underpinning the development of their sexual-selves, and the influences of the socio-cultural factors that framed the experiences of the participants in both their home and host cultures. ... The thesis argues that the concept of the sexual rights of women has to be equated with human rights for significant advances to be made in the equality of women with men. The findings have policy and practice implications of Iranian-American women benefiting from educational programs and community discussion groups. Health professionals will see greater therapeutic gain in their patients by having adequate sensitivity to and familiarity with their patients' culture and language. Researchers will have an information base from which to pursue further research, not only with Iranian women, but also with women of similar cultural backgrounds.

Background: Despite increasing numbers of Iranian-American physicians practicing in the United States, little is known about the barriers that may impact them as providers of sexual health care. This is an important topic as discussions of sexual topics are generally considered a taboo among Iranians. We aimed to identify barriers experienced by Iranian-American physicians that inhibit their willingness to engage in discussions of sexual health care with patients. Methods: In 2013, a self-administrated questionnaire was sent to 1,550 Iranian-American physicians in California. Questions included demographics of the physicians as well as their perception of challenges in discussing various sexual health topics with their patients. Factor analysis: Principal components approach with a Varimax rotation was used to detect latent factors within the data that may help explain possible barriers to discussion of sexual health among physicians. The analysis was performed on 11 items, specifically focused on possible barriers, to detect a possible relationship between correlated variables within the data to produce a set of uncorrelated variables (factors). Results: The overall response rate was 23 %. Data revealed specific barriers regarding sexual history taking, discussing STIs and sexual dysfunctions with patients based on their gender, and age. Three factors were identified as internally consistent (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.82 to 0.91): (i) embarrassment, (ii) cultural and religious, (iii) lack of time and financial constraint. Significant associations were found between these 3 factors and some variables such as: country of medical graduation, religious affiliation, birthplace, age, and gender. Conclusions: Our findings are the first to identify possible barriers among Iranian-American physicians in delivering effective sexual health care to patients. Additional studies from Iranian-American physicians as well as from other foreign-born/subpopulation of US physicians populations and mainstream US physicians are needed to assess the extent of such barriers, and changes over time. Effective strategies to better engage such physicians in these studies are needed. If confirmed from other studies, our findings could have implications for the training of US medical graduates.

Iranian-American womens' perceptions of their sexual-selves and gender roles are influenced both by the cultural context of their life experience in Iran and their acculturation in the USA. In a qualitative study, using narrative as methodology and a feminist theoretical framework, individual interviews were conducted with 24 first-generation Iranian-American women in southern California. The narratives revealed that these Iranian-American women felt attached to their home culture while also having a desire to distinguish themselves from it. In so doing, they realised that their individual sexual-selves and gender roles stemmed from their life experiences, such as home culture memories and new cultural exposures. The degrees of adjustment during the acculturation process provided women with challenges in dealing with the consequences of new experiences and the shame and guilt of shedding old cultural norms. Acculturation offered these Iranian-American women a fuller understanding of their gender role and sexual-self perceptions. An understanding of cultural impact on women's life experiences may assist healthcare professionals in their efforts to assist women in determining innovative intervention where the needs of gender role and sexual-self-concept are concerned.

Recently scholars have examined more closely the topic of female sexual self-concept as an aspect of sexual well-being. Few studies have focused on migrated women's life experiences cross-culturally, and how that informs a woman's view of herself as a sexual being. This is particularly true about most middle-eastern cultures, including Iranian-American women. Four case studies draw on qualitative data from interviews with first generation Iranian-American women in the USA to describe the sexual self-concepts evolving as a result of life in both cultures. Applying narrative methodology and feminist theoretical perspectives two themes were revealed. These are i) the influence of family power, and ii) patriarchal social practices. The analysis introduces a multidimensional aspect and process associated with each woman's view of her sexual self-concept, which takes into account their behaviours, cognitions, and emotions developed in each life stage, and inform her sexual subjectivity (view of herself as a sexual being). Implications of these findings for clinicians and policy makers involved in sexual health care for women are briefly discussed.