Privacy. Sexuality was considered a private matter and was seldom discussed in public. It was unacceptable for a person to express sexual desire by caressing or kissing someone in a public place. Parents waited until their children were ready to marry before they discussed sex and sexual pleasure with them. In most Muslim cultures sex was rarely discussed in the presence of unmarried family members, and women expressing sexual pleasure openly might be considered evil or loose. When the issue of sex did come up, the discussion was generally restricted to procreation.

Menstruation. Once a young woman reached the age at which she began to menstruate, her contacts with men were severely restricted. Like other phenomena that were not immediately explainable by common sense, menstruation was seen as the work of evildoers or "witches" and inspired fear in young women...