Culture Sensitive Approach to Sexual Education Resource Design for Women in Azerbaijan

Abstract

This thesis was motivated by my own experiences growing up as a young Azerbaijani woman in a society where discussions around sexuality, reproductive health, and bodily autonomy are often surrounded by silence, discomfort, and stigma. Like many of my peers, I learned about these topics through fragments of conversation, media, and personal observation—rather than through any formal or comprehensive education. This personal history led to a central guiding question for the project:
Is it possible to talk about sexual health in Azerbaijan in a way that is not seen as an act of rebellion against the culture, but as essential knowledge for making informed decisions about one’s health, relationships, and wellbeing?
The project focuses on young Azerbaijani women aged 18–30, a group often navigating relationships, marriage, and early parenthood with little reliable guidance. The ambition is to create a culturally sensitive and approachable way for women to access accurate knowledge without forcing them into conflict with their values or communities.
An adapted Double Diamond process (Design Council, 2005) was used to structure the project, integrating Culture Sensitive Design (Van Boeijen & Zijlstra, 2020), the Cultura method (Hao, 2019), and the Vision in Product Design (ViP) approach (Hekkert & Van Dijk, 2011). Desk research examined global sex education models, cultural sensitivity strategies, adult learning approaches, and the historical, political, and social narratives shaping gender roles and views on sexuality and health in Azerbaijan.
Field research combined five expert interviews, with two gynaecologists, a menstrual cycle educator, a psychiatrist, and a gender equality consultant/lawyer, with a generative session involving five young Azerbaijani women from urban, highly educated backgrounds. Experts provided insight into medical practices, psychological barriers, education gaps, legal frameworks, and systemic challenges. The generative session used persona creation, influence mapping, and personal timelines to surface lived experiences, trusted and untrusted information sources, and cultural pressures shaping sexual health understanding of young women. The combination of professional expertise and personal narratives revealed both overlapping concerns and distinct priorities: while experts often emphasized factual knowledge and medical accuracy, young women highlighted the need for emotional safety, consent, and relational guidance.
Analysis of this material identified five recurring tensions:
The Ideal Woman vs. Perfectly Human – Cultural ideals of purity, modesty, and reproductive duty contrasted with lived realities.
Learning in the Absence of Formal Education – Fragmented, informal peer networks as primary learning sources.
The More We Hide It, The Louder It Gets – How silence magnifies fascination, stigma, and misinformation.
Navigating a Healthcare (Marketplace) – Accessibility shaped by commercialization, provider attitudes, and cultural barriers.
Tradition vs. Quiet Resistance – The ways young women negotiate autonomy and boundaries within entrenched norms.
These findings informed the design goal formulated at the start of the Define phase:
To empower young Azerbaijani women to navigate cultural narratives about Female Sexuality and Health with confidence, self-respect, and emotional safety — through a learning resource that supports self-awareness, communication, and boundary-setting.
The final concept, Yanımda (“By My Side”), combines a discreet, tactile physical invitation with a private, visually neutral website. The site begins with general topics, anatomy, menstrual health, and relationships, before gradually introducing more open discussions of consent, pleasure, and sexual wellbeing. The tone is empathetic, non-stigmatizing, and paced to let users explore at their own comfort level.
Evaluation with the target group indicated that Yanımda feels approachable, trustworthy, and safe. Experts endorsed its potential to fill critical knowledge gaps while aligning with cultural sensitivities. Recommendations include expanding multilingual access, deepening the content library, and building partnerships with trusted healthcare providers and community spaces.
This work demonstrates that culturally sensitive sexual education in Azerbaijan is both necessary and feasible when rooted in empathy, cultural awareness, and trust-building. By aligning accurate information with values already embedded in the culture, Yanımda offers a foundation for healthier, more confident, and informed decision-making, for both this generation and the next.