ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Mehmet Sungur speculates that the value placed on virginity in Turkish culture may contribute to the high incidence of vaginismus observed in that country. Turkey, like many other countries, is transitioning from a rural agrarian economy to an urban one, and many Turkish people are themselves still in transition. The importance of extended family and notions of privacy thus differ from Western values. Respecting the priority of the extended family and working with privacy constraints, Sungur describes his treatment of a woman with long standing vaginismus, treatment that involved her in-laws. This chapter provides a wonderful template for providing culturally sensitive treatment in a larger family context—where sex is not a private matter between two consenting adults, but a matter for the wider family to be concerned about.
