Contents*

• Part 1: Greek Cyprus 279

• Demographics and a Brief Historical Perspective 279

1. Basic Sexological Premises 280
2. Religious, Ethnic, and Gender Factors Affecting Sexuality 280
3. Knowledge and Education about Sexuality 287
4. Autoerotic Behaviors and Patterns 288
5. Interpersonal Heterosexual Behaviors 289
6. Homoerotic, Homosexual, and Bisexual Behaviors 292
7. Gender Diversity and Transgender Issues 296
8. Significant Unconventional Sexual Behaviors 296
9. Contraception, Abortion, and Population Planning 298
10. Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS 300
11. Sexual Dysfunctions, Counseling, and Therapies 305
12. Sex Research and Advanced Professional Education 307
13. References and Suggested Readings 307

• Part 2: Turkish Cyprus 308

• Demographics and a Brief Historical Perspective 308

1. Basic Sexological Premises 309
2. Religious, Ethnic, and Gender Factors Affecting Sexuality 311
3. Knowledge and Education about Sexuality 311
4. Autoerotic Behaviors and Patterns 312
5. Interpersonal Heterosexual Behaviors 312
6. Homoerotic, Homosexual, and Bisexual Behaviors 313
7. Gender Diversity and Transgender Issues 314
8. Significant Unconventional Sexual Behaviors 314
9. Contraception, Abortion, and Population Planning 315
10. Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS 315
11. Sexual Dysfunctions, Counseling, and Therapies 316
12. Sex Research and Advanced Professional Education 318
13. References and Suggested Readings 319

*A Note for Researchers:  The numbers included in the section titles in the Contents above refer to the page numbers in the print edition of the CCIES. For the convenience of researchers, an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file of this chapter is available for download above (click the PDF icon), which reflects the actual pagination of the book. This will allow scholarly writers to cite actual page numbers in the printed book for quoted material, as well as its availability on the Web and the URL if desired. See also How to Use This Encyclopedia.

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Demographics and a Brief Historical Perspective

ROBERT T. FRANCOEUR

A. Demographics

Cyprus, the third-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, lies in the Middle East off the eastern shore of the Greek Islands, the southern coast of Turkey, and the western shore of Syria, with Lebanon, Syria, and Israel to the southeast. Measuring 141 miles by 60 miles (227 km by 97 km) wide, the island’s total land area is 3,570 square miles (9,250 km²), a little more than half the size of the state of Connecticut. The island is divided between Greek and Turkish regions, with 2,275 square miles (5,895 km²) comprising the Republic of Cyprus and 1,295 square miles (3,355 km²) in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Two mountain ranges cross the island from east to west, separated by a wide, fertile plain.

In July 2002, Cyprus had an estimated population of 767,314, of which Turkish Cyprus had about 200,000. (All data are from The World Factbook 2002 (CIA 2002) unless otherwise stated.)

***Note: The Greek authors welcomed the opportunity to prepare this chapter on Cyprus because very little has been published on Cypriot sexuality in the international literature. This has been because of the lack of adequate funding and professionals to conduct methodologically sound research on the island, a lack of a coordinating body, the difficulties involved in collecting data given a conservative and sexually inhibited society, the suppressive influence of the Orthodox Church on human sexuality, and other factors. We have collected, analyzed, and integrated whatever information we could find, including statistical data, the results of professional experience and clinical work, and anecdotal reflections from professionals in fields related to sexology.

B. A Brief Historical Perspective

Recent excavations on the island of Cyprus have yielded evidence of human society at least 10,000 years old. The Mycenean (Greek) culture flourished in the second millennium B.C.E. After Phoenicians colonized the island in the 10th century B.C.E., Cyprus remained a major entre-pôt for trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Annexed by Rome in 58 B.C.E., Cyprus later became part of the Byzantine Empire until the English King Richard I (Lion-Heart) established a crusader state there in 1191 C.E. The Lusignan dynasty ruled until 1489, when Venice annexed the island. In 1571, Cyprus became part of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1878, the Congress of Berlin placed Cyprus under British administration. After annexing the island in 1914, Great Britain made it a British colony in 1925. Between 1945 and 1948, the British used the island as a detention area for “illegal” Jewish immigrants trying to reach Palestine.

After 1947, the Greek Cypriot community expanded its longstanding agitation for union (enosis) with Greece, a policy strongly opposed by the Turkish Cypriot community. After violence in 1954 and 1955, Cyprus gained full independence under a 1960 agreement that forbade either enosis or partition and included guarantees of the rights of both Greeks and Turks. Efforts by the president, Archbishop Makarios, to alter the Constitution in favor of the Greek majority led to more violence in 1964.

A Greek Junta-inspired military coup against Makarios in 1974 led to Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus and the de facto partition of the island and declaration of the northern 40% of the island as the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus. Some 200,000 Greek Cypriots were expelled from the Turkish area to the Republic, while many Turks fled the Republic for safety in the north. The Republic has experienced a return of political stability and economic prosperity, with agriculture, light manufacturing, and tourism leading the way. The economy in the Turkish sector has been generally stagnant, as the international community refused to recognize the 1983 declaration of independence by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Tensions have eased since the United Nations-sponsored Greek-Turkish talks on Cypriot unity, even though little progress has been achieved thus far.

1. Basic Sexological Premises, and
2. Religious, Ethnic, and Gender Factors Affecting Sexuality

NICOS PERISTIANIS*

*Note: This combined section on gender roles, marriage, family, and ethnic and religious factors was written by Nicos Peristianis, president of the Association of Cypriot Sociologists, based upon his research and that of his colleagues.

A. Character of Gender Roles

Ethnographic and anthropological accounts of Cyprus (Peristiany 1974, Markides et al. 1978) stress the importance of the nuclear family as the paramount institution of Cypriot society, so much so that “an individual exists only as a member of a family,” and the self cannot be conceived independently from its familial roles. This is in marked contrast to Western “solitary” conceptions of the self (Mavratsas 1992). The family has acquired such significance, because it was, and still is to a large degree, the primary social, economic, and moral unit of Cypriot society.

The Traditional Cypriot Family and Gender Roles

The economy of Cyprus maintained its predominantly agrarian character well into the 20th century (Christodoulou 1992). The perennially heavy financial demands of conquerors and the especially hostile ecological factors—the strategic resources of water and land were always in limited supply, and diseases frequently destroyed crops—led to competition being a keystone aspect of life, and reliance on the family group being vital for survival. Economic activities were conducted by the entire household for the improvement of their common position, thus enhancing family solidarity and the strong distinctions between “insiders” and “outsiders.”

In his survey of rural life in the late 1920s, Surridge, a British colonial officer, noted an internal division of labor within the family, with men being responsible for heavy agricultural work and women (aided by the older children) for the lighter work in the fields, as well as housework. Usually one of the girls would stay behind to look after younger children and help with some housework (Surridge 1930). At the same time, much as in Greece and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, there was a “moral division of labor inside the family,” revolving around the cultural codes, or values, of “honor and shame” (Campbell 1983, Schneider 1971).

Honor (timi) refers to the value or worth of an individual—but since the individual exists as a “member of a family,” whatever worth one earns for oneself automatically “spills over” to the family. Correspondingly, shame (ntropi) refers to a loss of honor, esteem, or worth, which brings humiliation, “staining” the individual and family.

It is important to appreciate the salience of these codes on the lives of individuals in traditional Cypriot society. Peter Berger has argued convincingly that contrary to modern societies’ emphasis on “dignity,” which implies a notion of the self devoid of institutional attachments and roles, more traditional societies put an emphasis on “honor,” which “implies that identity is essentially, or at least importantly, linked to an individual’s institutional roles.” In fact, an individual in a “world of honor” “discovers his true identity in his roles.” “To turn away from the roles is to turn away from himself” (Berger et al. 1973). What, then, were the roles through which individual Cypriot men and women discovered their true identities or selves?

The traditional role of the man in Cyprus was that of representing the family to the outside world. As head of the family, he engaged in all tasks necessary to protect and sustain the family. He was the main income earner who made decisions regarding production by obtaining knowledge about environmental conditions, resources, and markets. After work, he would spend time in the coffeehouse (kafeneion), where information was exchanged and contacts made, as well as views shared on political and village affairs. The highest value for man was “love of honor” (philotimo), that is, self-respect and self-assertive courage, which amounted to assertive masculinity, in all areas of social life, to protect the honor of the family.

The traditional role of the woman was to be responsible for the family inside the home. Her tasks revolved around three sets of duties: first, the duty of being a good mother, hence the tasks of nurturing and caring for the children; second, the duty of being a good housekeeper, responsible for cleaning the house, cooking, shopping, and looking after domestic animals; and finally, the duty of being a good wife, by being obedient, respectful, and submissive to her husband.

The separation of the sexes in traditional society, especially rural areas, was quite strict, even though it has lessened with modernization. A woman would keep away from public areas, which were the domain of men. Women would never enter coffeehouses or athletic clubs; similarly, they would rarely be seen passing through the central square of the village, where most male-dominated coffeehouses were concentrated. In churches, women would occupy the rear and upstairs sections, the front part being reserved for men only. Women could attain more freedom to circulate among men only when they were not considered sexually risk-bearing, i.e., young girls before puberty and elderly, no-longer-sexually attractive women (well past menopause). In these cases, women could walk in the streets more freely, pass through the central square, and converse with men. But in no case could women enter and contaminate in church the holy of holies where the altar is housed.

Women’s avoidance of public spaces related to their need to avoid sexual shame. In fact, shame-avoidance was the principal value governing all female behavior in traditional society. In his classic study of a Cypriot highland village in the 1950s, Peristiany (1965) noted that a “woman’s foremost duty to self and family is to safeguard herself against all critical allusions to her sexual modesty. In dress, looks, attitudes, and speech, a woman in the presence of men should be virginal as a maiden and matronly as a wife.” A woman who behaves in conformity to the “code” regulating the behavior of her sex (femininity and passive modesty), is said to be an honorable woman (timia gynaika), whereas the one who doesn’t is without honor (atime), or, what amounts to the same thing, without shame—shameless (adiantrope). Again, honor and shame, respectively, are not restricted to the woman, but “spill over” to her family. Thus, for instance, in the case of an unmarried woman, shame taints directly the father and brothers, “who did not protect or avenge her honor.” After marriage, these responsibilities pass to the woman’s husband.

Whether father, brother, or husband, men bear the responsibility of caring for the women of the family. Indeed, this will be their conformity hallmark that regulates the behavior of their sex (“manliness and assertion of masculinity”). In both cases of non-conformity to the code of honor (“an unmanly man” or “an immodest woman”), the perpetrators are guilty not of breaking an externally given rule, but of betraying their very nature, their physis—because it is considered in the nature of men and women to act in those ways (Peristiany 1974).

Gender roles are taught throughout the socialization process. A study of the lowland village of Lysi in the early 1970s provides an account of the different patterns of socialization for the two sexes (Markides et al. 1978). From a very early age, in their games, boys try to imitate their father’s behavior and girls their mother’s. Until the age of 6, children are free to play in the streets and visit neighbors’ and relatives’ homes. But after this age, girls begin to spend most of their time at home, playing with their sisters or other friends, but also learning how to clean, cook, sew, and so on. As they grow older, they may be allowed to visit relatives or friends, once they have secured their mother’s consent. No such limitations apply for boys, who continue to be free to wander around and play in the streets, and to visit the kafeneion or other clubs and public places. Boys are encouraged to develop their masculinity as expressed through “physical courage, toughness, competitiveness, aggressiveness, and defending one’s honor,” whereas girls are taught to cultivate their femininity as expressed through “gentleness, expressiveness, responsiveness, tenderness and modesty” (Balswick 1973). The most important virtues that girls must learn are, again, those related to modesty and shame-avoidance. A girl must demonstrate that she is a virgin not only in the flesh, but also in spirit. She should avoid not only physical, but also social contact with men, because this could be associated with sexual desire. This entails accepting a number of social prohibitions, such as never to talk to a man in the street, unless he is a close relative; not to fraternize with men, and “when a man looks at her she should avert her eyes and blush; she should not laugh in front of men and if she does so, she must bring her hand in front of her mouth” (Markides et al. 1978).

If this behavior is maintained, her good name and family honor are preserved, which adds to her value as a future bride. Throughout socialization in the family and community, a girl learns to set marriage as the paramount goal of her life, since it allows her to become a wife and a mother. A woman who remains unmarried is destined to remain at the social and cultural periphery of the village, for she is not offered any role to play within the mainstream of society. Her destiny will, in fact, be to care for the elderly parents and the children of married sisters and brothers, and to engage in church-related activities.

Marriage and the creation of a family are also very important for young men, for it is only through them that they will be considered full and mature members of society with equal rights and responsibilities. A man reaches manhood only when he marries. Until then, he is still a kopellin, a “lad,” which means he cannot hold any responsible position within the power hierarchy of the village.

Social Change, Modernization, and Gender Roles

The roots of Cyprus’s modernization can be traced back to the beginnings of British colonialism. Prior to British control, Cyprus had been subject to Ottoman rule for approximately 300 years, during which time the land was owned by the State; the peasants had the right to use the land in exchange for the appropriate taxes. British colonialism introduced a connection between individual production and the right to private property. Peasants could now own the land they cultivated; but they could also lose it! Indeed, for various reasons, such as bad agricultural years and overspending on their children’s dowry, many peasants found themselves in heavy debt to insurers, to whom they had resorted for borrowing money, and to whom many eventually lost their land because they could not repay their mortgage.

Such destitute peasants sought employment in other sectors of the economy, namely the mines and small industries that started developing in the urban centers early on in the 20th century. After World War II, when Britain was forced to abandon her bases in the Middle East and to grant independence to India, Cyprus acquired enhanced strategic value. In response, the British constructed two large military bases on the island, at Episkopi and Dhekelia, with the resulting construction industry providing new employment opportunities. Furthermore, the increased needs of the British military and administrative personnel provided further jobs and new commercial possibilities.

During the 1950s, the final decade of British rule in Cyprus, the average annual rate of growth of the economy reached 12%, an indicator of the progress that was being achieved. Urbanization had also grown dramatically: Whereas at the beginning of British rule, the urban population was only 17%, by the time they left, it amounted to 36%. As Attalides (1981) showed in his study of social change and urbanization in Cyprus, the majority of the people who migrated to the towns were those who had no land of their own and no work, mostly unmarried men and women. Another major reason for migration was the decision to attend high school. This was because of the recognition that education provided a way out of the villages and hard toil in the fields, into “a better life” in the towns and employment possibilities in the newly created white-collar jobs.

Gradually, the urban centers became the foci of the economy as well as of social and cultural life. This, along with the emergence of a sizable urban middle class, led to a restructuring of power relations—a shift of power from the village to the city. As a result of these modernizing processes, the family underwent considerable change. Functions earlier performed by the family were gradually taken over by other institutions, even though not to the extent and with the consequences this had in the West. Thus, even though in many cases the family stopped being a production unit (as in the case of destitute peasants joining the working force in the mines or industry), in many other cases, money earned from work in the towns found its way back to the villages to help the family pay off debts and maintain its land and unity. In yet other cases, family businesses were set up in towns, so the family kept its production role in a new context (Argyrou 1996).

It is also interesting to note that, whereas in many other developing societies, urbanization led to a break-up of extended family systems into the nuclear system, in Cyprus there was somewhat of a reversal in the process. We have noted how rural Cypriot society was characterized by a nuclear family system; urbanization, in its early stages at least, had an expanding effect, since kin members were added to the nuclear core (usually younger relatives looking for a job in town). Thus, it does not seem that modernization and urbanization negatively affected family cohesiveness and strength (Attalides 1981).

There were, however, gradual changes in gender roles within the family. Two of the most important factors leading to these changes have been education and employment. Education became an important mechanism of social mobility, advancing both the status of peasants to that of white-collar workers and improving the status of women (Persianis 1998). The first primary schools were established by the Orthodox Church toward the end of Ottoman rule. Very few girls attended these schools because women’s destiny was to marry and have a family at an early age. Besides, because there were only male teachers at the time, parents were unwilling to allow their daughters to stay in school beyond the age of 8 or 9. For the same reasons, this absence was even more pronounced in the case of the few secondary schools, which were concentrated in the towns. The first girls to attend schools came from the wealthier (bourgeois) class, which valued the cultural benefits of education, expecting their girls to be taught how to be “refined ladies,” but also to remain “modest and quiet.” It is from the 1920s onwards, the period in which we start having increasing rates of urbanization and industrialization, that we have sizable increases in student numbers, including girls. Most of these new students were children of the wealthier rural and, primarily, urban classes. The motives, henceforth, became mainly economic, because education was now considered instrumental in securing a job in the towns, in commercial shops, trading firms, banks, and similar work. Such motives were further strengthened in subsequent periods, when the economy grew at a faster pace, providing more and more opportunities for work. This was true after World War II, but especially after independence in 1960, when the service sector opened up. Cypriots thought service jobs to be more appropriate for women, since they more closely resembled their traditional roles.

The 1974 Turkish invasion brought destruction of biblical proportions to the Greek Cypriots. Almost 40% of the land came under Turkish control; a full third of the population became refugees and had to flee to the south for survival. Most of these ended up in refugee camps at the outskirts of the larger towns, creating a large new wave of “forced” urbanization. Women from such refugee families, especially of rural and working-class background, provided cheap labor for light manufacturing industries, mostly in shoes and clothing, which found unexpected opportunities for growth during this period. Furthermore, the expanded welfare and other state services, which tried to cater to the new needs, provided new opportunities for middle-class women, both refugee and non-refugee alike. The final pull was provided with the economic recovery and unprecedented boost, the “economic miracle,” in the early 1980s, which created numerous new jobs in tourism and the wider service sector.

Throughout this period, women’s employment increased by leaps and bounds, as did schooling for girls. By 1995, women’s employment was 38.6% of the total, as compared to 35.17% in 1985. In both primary and secondary education, the ratio of girls was equal to that of boys, with some marginal differences at the tertiary level, where more boys than girls study outside Cyprus, whereas more girls than boys study at tertiary institutions in Cyprus.

All these changes have obviously transformed the Cypriot family and gender roles within it, although continuity with past patterns remains strong. Mothers, especially of the younger generations, are not only “allowed,” but “expected” to work. Recent research by Papapetrou and Pendedeka in 1998 shows that family members believe the mother to be sensitive, permissive, and flexible toward children’s demands. She is over-protective and worries a lot about her children, spending time in discussion with them, certainly more so than the father, which may explain why she demonstrates more empathy and understanding toward the children. This is seen to be related to the fact that she carries the care of the household and family, spends many hours at home, and thus has more opportunities to see each family member separately. This, it is speculated, may also provide her with the opportunity to “administer” or “rule,” to know “what” and “when” something must take place. Such powers, however, are not tantamount to the role of “leader,” which is reserved for the father. She is expected to work, but she is also expected to ungrudgingly interrupt her career to raise children. After all, woman’s working role is seen as a secondary one, important for supplementing the family’s income and not as the main breadwinner.

The father is the one considered to be really responsible for the economic well-being of the family. He is still considered to be the leader of the team and his opinions are “determinative” when it comes to “serious” matters, or matters which have an impact upon the whole family. He does very little in the house, his activity being mostly limited to heavy jobs (such as construction or repair-work) upon mother’s requests. Usually, he does not spend much time at home, but prefers the coffee shop, a hobby, or a second job; when he stays at home, he usually watches television, especially news reports. He is thus seen as austere, strongly opinionated, and distant. Often he is “unexpressive,” since man’s socialization into masculinity (competitiveness, toughness, aggressiveness, physical courage, and defending one’s honor) teaches him that expressiveness toward his wife and children is a “feminine” characteristic.

B. Sociolegal Status of Males and Females, Children and Adults

The traditional social and moral order has been sanctioned by the Cypriot Orthodox Church. The family is considered to be a divine institution, relations between its members being comparable to the relations between God, Mary, and the Christ Child. Icons were traditionally kept in a specific holder (ikonostasi) of every home, with an oil-lamp constantly burning, symbolizing the divine protection of the institutions of marriage and family.

During the marital ceremony, considered to be one of the seven “Divine Mysteries” or Sacraments through which God’s grace is bestowed to humans, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians is read to the newlyweds, reminding them that, in their relationship, the wife must fear her husband and be submissive to him at all times, whereas the husband must love the woman, as Christ loved the Church. Obedience, respect, and submission to husband are moral imperatives that highlight the patriarchal nature of traditional Cypriot society.

Modernization of all spheres of Cypriot life and secularization of the religious sphere have certainly brought about important changes. The 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus enshrines modern democratic ideals, including equality of men and women before the law. It also specifically prohibits any “direct or indirect discrimination against any person on the ground of his [sic] community, race, religion, language, sex, political or other convictions, national or social descent, birth, color, wealth, social class or any ground whatsoever . . .” (Article 28).

Nevertheless, as has been pointed out by Stavrou (1998), the patriarchal “logic” lurks behind some of the provisions of the supreme legal document of the country. For instance, in determining the ethnic community to which a citizen should “belong,” after marrying someone from the opposite community (i.e., a Greek Cypriot marrying a Turkish Cypriot or vice-versa), the Constitution clarifies that: “A married woman shall belong to the community to which her husband belongs.” Similarly, in the case of children under the age of 21 who are not married, a child “shall belong to the community to which his or her father belongs . . .” (Article 2: Par. 7).

This patriarchal logic pervades other sociolegal institutions and respective provisions or regulations. Thus, if an alien man marries a Cypriot woman, he does not automatically acquire Cypriot citizenship, unless he fulfills almost all the conditions that any other alien must fulfill in order to acquire citizenship. If, however, an alien woman is married to a Cypriot man, she thereby acquires his residence as well as his domicile.

While there are often no specific laws determining discriminatory social practices, traditional norms and values may produce such outcomes. For instance, there is no legal provision that regulates the name the parties in a marriage should assume. “The practice, however, as has been customary throughout much of the European Christian world, is that upon marriage a woman takes her husband’s family name. Also, the children take their father’s family name except in the case of illegitimate children, who take the name of the father of their mother” (Stavrou 1998).

In many other instances, the laws may provide for equality and prohibit discrimination, but traditional institutions and practices may still prevail. A most glaring case is that of divorce, traditionally governed by Church law, which entails different divorce provisions for husband and wife. Two reasons that may be invoked only by the husband as against his wife are: First, that the wife was found not to be a virgin on the night of the wedding, which has to be reported to the local Bishop the next day; second, that the wife spent the night with persons unrelated to her (unless she could not find a relative’s house to stay for the night, after being ousted from the home by her husband).

The Constitution perpetuated these unequal provisions by declaring marriage and divorce matters as the domain of the Church. It was much later, when Civil Marriage Law 95/89 amended the relevant article of the Constitution, to allow free choice of civil weddings for Greek Cypriots, and to place matters such as divorce, judicial separation, and family relations under the governance of special family courts. The Church of Cyprus reacted strongly against these legal changes and exerts all kinds of pressure in order to retain control of the institution of marriage. Until today, the Church insists that civil weddings are illegitimate and refuses to offer perpetrators the services of baptism and other holy sacraments. These pressures by the Church, but also (and perhaps most importantly), the weight of long-adhered-to traditions, explain why the vast majority of Cypriots (more than 70%) still choose religious, instead of civil weddings. Indeed, civil marriages between Cypriots account for only 3.6% of total marriages.

A similar situation prevails with divorce. The procedures for securing divorce through the Church are not only long and laborious, but they are also much more exacting and discriminatory against women. Nevertheless, because of the Church’s pressures and the special weight of adhered-to traditions, most Greek Cypriots prefer to put up with the difficulties of Church divorce instead of resorting to civil divorce. They are afraid of getting themselves entangled into a web of socially difficult or embarrassing situations. For instance, should one wish to remarry in church after a civil divorce, one may find oneself accused of attempting bigamy!

Interestingly, on the issue of abortion, women’s span of control or available choices seems to be much greater than in many other countries, even of the developed West. This seems to have to do as much with historical circumstance as with current social realities. Up to the early 1970s, the Criminal Code completely prohibited the practice and provided severe penalties for perpetrators. Developments related to the 1974 Turkish invasion drastically changed the situation when many Greek Cypriot women became pregnant after being raped by Turkish soldiers during the hostilities. Obviously, Greek Cypriot society was not ready to accept the offspring of the “barbarians” into its midst. Many Greek Cypriot men found it difficult enough to accept the raped women themselves, who were violated or “shamed” publicly. Even though the women resisted this violation of their bodies, the public consequences of the rape indirectly brought shame on their families, and especially on their men. As a consequence, the relevant law was radically amended to allow medical intervention for the termination of unwanted pregnancy in such cases. In addition, a provision was made for pregnancy to be terminated if two doctors advised that the life of an expectant mother would be in danger should pregnancy be allowed to continue, or in cases in which a newborn baby would face the risk of serious physical or mental disability.

These loopholes in the law effectively opened wide the doors for abortions under almost any pretext. Although hard data are not available, there are many indications that a large number of abortions are carried out in modern-day Cyprus. This may appear strange for a society that is still quite conservative on a number of other counts. Even stranger is the fact that there hardly appears to be much anti-abortion talk from any quarters, let alone an anti-abortion movement. Finally, the Church, though in theory opposed to all forms of abortion, seems in practice to be only paying lip service to a cause it does not really care to fight for. One suspects that the main reason for this is that the Church cares mostly to control not the private decisions, but the public behavior and choices of Greek Cypriots, since it is the latter which serves as an index of its power.

Obviously, the historical circumstances, outlined earlier on, explain to some extent why abortions were initially “legalized,” and why, consequently, once the legal prohibition was removed, the door was opened for abortions for all kinds of reasons. But why did the phenomenon grow to much larger proportions? It seems that social change and new realities in contemporary Cyprus account for the remaining part of the answer. Indeed, in recent decades there have been fast-paced and drastic socioeconomic changes, which seem to have eroded traditional values and norms without allowing the time for new norms to develop—the phenomenon of “cultural lag.” This is evident in the area of sexual relationships. Many young people are experimenting with sex in their relationships, something that contemporary “open” or “liberated” Cypriot society seems to “allow.” Yet the relationships of these young people with their parents (and teachers) do not seem to be so liberated as to allow for straight talk about sex and contraception—thus the many unwanted pregnancies and the use of abortion as an alternative to contraception!

Besides the young, many older people have problems with their marriage; hence the increasing rates of divorce. Both young and older couples also seem to be resorting to relationships outside marriage, which may again lead to unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

To the above must be added the fact that Cypriot males, and sometimes their women partners, seem to think that male contraceptives will somehow render lovemaking “less natural” and enjoyable. Thus, contraception ends up being the sole responsibility of women. And if she has not taken the necessary precautions, they end up with unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

The ease of abortions may be an important explanatory factor for the fact that children born out of wedlock are rarely found in Cyprus. To this, of course, we must add the prevailing conservative traditional values, which view unmarried mothers as immoral, since they are seen to be flagrantly violating the sexual code and carrying the “shame of dishonor.” Because stigma is a certain outcome for childbearing outside wedlock, and because abortions are so easy to arrange, it is no wonder that illegitimate births are almost nonexistent.

Cyprus has, in fact, introduced legislation (Law 243/90) to bring itself in line with the provisions of the relevant European Convention. An interesting example, which highlights all the above issues, concerned a case in the mid 1990s of an unmarried woman working in the Church-run broadcasting station (Logos). When she decided to go against convention and not hide the fact that she was pregnant, she was soon fired, as she was seen to be a case of embarrassment for her employer and a bad moral example for all. The fired woman sued the station and managed to win the case and be awarded compensation (Fileleftheros, 9 May 1995).

Another recent law, which aims to protect women from the abuse of traditional norms, relates to the Prevention of Violence in the Family and the Protection of Victims of Violence (47(I)/94). Such a law was of absolute necessity in Cyprus, where many men consider it their legitimate right to uphold their power as husbands and/or fathers in the family through any means possible, including violence, whether it be physical or psychological violence against the wife and children, or sexual violence against the wife.

The Sociolegal Status of Men and Women in Work/Employment

For many years, women in the labor force suffered various forms of discrimination as regards inequality in pay for similar work done, conditions of work, type of employment, and opportunities for advancement. Gradually, as a result of a number of factors, such as pressures from women’s organizations and the trade unions, and political pressures emanating from the signing by the Cypriot government of various international treaties, the situation has substantially improved, at least as far as legal provisions are concerned. This has not, however, substantially improved the situation for all women, nor has such legal improvements dramatically improved the life of women.

A good example is that of social insurance legislation, enacted since independence, which provides for a marriage grant payable to working women when they marry, as well as a maternity grant and allowance, the former paid to a woman giving birth, the latter paid during a maternity leave of up to 12 weeks. Unfortunately, the plan does not cover self-employed women or unpaid family workers in agriculture, who comprise approximately a third of the total number of economically active women. Furthermore, it does not cover thousands of women involved with unpaid housework, as this is not considered “proper” work. This means that a great number of Cypriot women, particularly older women, have to remain in a state of complete dependence on their husbands. Social insurance legislation has been modified appropriately, after ratification of the International Labor Organization Convention 100, and the Equal Remuneration Law (158/89), to provide for equal pay for men and women for work of equal value. This has decreased the gap between male and female wages, although it has certainly not closed it, since equal remuneration is practiced only by the government and a few large corporations, mainly banks, but certainly not by the private sector at large. Among the laws that seek to improve the legal position of women in employment is the “termination of employment” law (24/87), under which sex, pregnancy, or maternity can never constitute reasons for the termination of employment. Again, however, evidence shows that many employers tend to ignore the law, and that in such cases few women proceed to take legal measures against the perpetrators (Varnavidon & Roussou 1995).

Another interesting example, which illustrates how small an effect changes in laws can have on actual social practices, is the abolition of the pre-independence law (180), which prohibited the employment of women during the night. For many years following abolition of this law, social resistance to the idea of women working outside their homes during the night has been such that few women still dare to do so. The result has been an intense shortage of women working in jobs for which night duties are essential, such as nursing and paramedical occupations. For this reason, private clinics have been given permission to employ women from foreign countries. Also, Cypriot women employed in the Cypriot Police Force and the National Guard, as well as those working in the thriving tourist industry, are exempt from night duties.

Lastly, we should underline the fact that in 1985 the Cyprus government ratified the United Nations Convention (34/180) on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Law 78/85). This symbolized Cyprus’s commitment to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women in all spheres of life, be it education, politics, employment, family, or public life.

In summary, two major comments could be made about legislative change and its impact on Cypriot society. To begin with, most ratifications of international conventions and relevant laws were passed in the recent decades, after independence in 1960, but mostly after 1974. This suggests that, until recent times, concerns about equality and the protection of the rights of various underprivileged groups in society, including women and children, were not a primary issue, because traditional Cypriot society was based on conservative norms, values, and morals. Cypriot life revolves around the central social institution of the patriarchal family, with the father enjoying controlling power over the behavior of the other members of the family, especially women, as the preordained “order of things,” legitimated by religion.

Modernization and socioeconomic change have contributed to an “opening-up” of society and the gradual espousal of more liberal values and norms. Thus, the introduction of the various laws outlined above. Yet, it seems that Cyprus is going through a period of transition, in which new values coexist with traditional ones. This, as well as the efforts of traditional male and clerical power holders to cling to their powers, seems to explain the persistence of inequality between the sexes and generations.

Women themselves have been slow to organize and push for their rights. Traditionally, the main domain of women’s participation in public life has been that of voluntary institutions, especially charitable organizations. This is true especially for upper- and middle-class women, the roots of the phenomenon dating back to the formative stages of the bourgeois class in Cyprus and its ideals of keeping women away from the world of production, as “queens” in the private realm of the family, into which men would retreat after work. Women’s involvement with charitable institutions was accepted and encouraged, because, in dealing with these, they could expend similar “feminine” services as the ones expended within the families themselves, namely care, love, and affection (Peristianis 1998). Voluntary organizations, and especially charitable ones, seem to have increased in numbers after the Turkish invasion of 1974, with the appearance of new social groups in need of support (Antoniou 1992). Interestingly enough, the leadership of most of these organizations is composed of men, with the exception of a handful of organizations, such as the Cyprus Red Cross and the Association for the Prevention of Violence in the Family.

Women from the working classes had a more prominent role in the trade unions, which started organizing early on in the 20th century. The oldest such union, PEO (Pancyprian Federation of Labor), is controlled by AKEL, the communist party of Cyprus. SEK (Federation of Cypriot Workers) is controlled by DISI, the right-wing party, and DEOK (Democratic Workers Federation of Cyprus), is controlled by the socialist party, EDEK. There are also strong autonomous unions representing government employees (PASIDI) and bank employees (ETIK).

In the labor history of Cyprus, women have fought alongside men for basic labor rights, such as social insurance, improvements in wages, and shorter working hours (Pyrgou 1993). However, trade unions do not appear to have actively pursued women’s rights for equality in the labor market. In fact, trade unions have accepted pay discrimination against women in labor agreements with respective employers (House 1987). It is interesting that the first law (in 1961), which provided for equal pay for women in the public sector, was enacted, not after trade union pressure, but as a result of a private prosecution by a woman employee who sued the Republic of Cyprus for not upholding the Constitutional Law’s provision for equal treatment of the sexes.

Cypriot women have never gone on strike in pursuit of their specific rights as women. One possible reason for this may be the fact that, whereas all unions have departments dealing with women’s matters, policymaking of these departments is directed by men (Antoniou 1992). Overall, although women constitute more than a third of the total trade-union membership, they seem to exert little influence of their own.

A contributing factor is obviously the control of all general unions by the political parties, who are, once again, male-dominated, and whose primary objectives have to do with furthering their political ambitions. Even more surprising is the fact that women’s organizations themselves seem to be controlled or strongly affiliated with political parties. Thus POGO (Pancyprian Organization of Women) is controlled by the communist party; Equal Rights and Equal Responsibilities is controlled by the right-wing party. The Socialist Feminist Movement and the Women’s Organization of the Democratic Party are even more forthright in declaring their affiliation in their own names.

For decades now, the primary focus of concern for the political parties has been the ethnic conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, “the Cyprus Problem.” This has overshadowed all other issues, including those concerning women, equality of the sexes, and gender relations. Even though the higher officers of these women’s organizations have the opportunity to participate in the decision-making processes of the political parties, their voices are seldom strong enough to make a real impact, as the leading teams are always male-dominated. This becomes even more obvious in times of elections, as women candidates seldom, if ever, make it on parties’ lists. Because of prejudices and stereotypes, hardly any women who do make it onto ballots manage to attract enough votes to enter the House. In 1999, there were only three women members out of a total of 53 members. Women seem to do somewhat better in local government, where they appear to be increasing their numbers yearly. Of course, these posts hold negligible political power, so women’s gains in this area do not amount to a serious improvement in their status or impact.

C. General Concepts and Constructs of Sexuality and Love

In traditional Cypriot society, marriages were arranged by parents and had nothing or little to do with the personal preferences of the young people involved. Often a young man coming of wedding age would suggest to his parents a particular girl of his fancy (usually a girl he found attractive in external appearance but had little knowledge of—since girls were expected to practice “male-avoidance,” in order to protect their reputation and honor). If the parents approved of their son’s choice, they would proceed to sound out the parents of the girl, usually through the services of a mediator/matchmaker. If the parents disapproved of the choice, their objections usually prevailed, as they were supposed to “know best” because they were “older and more experienced.” Obviously, the girl’s opinion was rarely asked for and her freedom of choice was much more restricted than the young man’s.

The paramount criteria for parents’ preferences had to do with considerations of their family’s best social and economic interests—thus, they had to be satisfied with the economic well-being of the girl’s family, the status of her family in the social hierarchy of the village, as well as the moral reputation/standing of the girl and her family in the village. Obviously, a good choice for marriage would enhance both the material resources as well as the status of their family in the village community. Parents would give a “dowry” to the young couple as a material aid to help the newlyweds make a good start in their married life. The bride’s family would usually contribute the house plus furniture, kitchen utensils, household linen, and similar items. The bridegroom’s side would provide some land and animals. Attalides (1981) notes that marriage settlements imply a bargaining process of matching the assets brought to the new household by the respective partners. Moreover, the practice of giving equal inheritance to all children means that parents must be aware so that what they give to one child at the time of marriage does not jeopardize the share of any remaining children. “In this situation, it is understandable that control of premarital sexuality should be extremely strict for girls.” Thus, if a girl acquires a “bad reputation,” the bargaining power of a potential husband is enormously increased, allowing him the chance to make “virtually extortionate demands for a property settlement, thus incapacitating the domestic group from provision for further children” (Attalides 1981). Of course, property considerations were only one set of reasons for the adherence to a strict moral code of behavior for women, but they were surely an important set.

The above constitutes one more set of reasons why families had to always be vigilant of the reputation of their women. Young women had to maintain their chastity until their wedding day. If a woman’s sexual purity was questioned, she risked her chance of ever marrying. Virginity was a necessary condition of a woman’s moral integrity and the principal prerequisite for marriage. It should be remembered that virginity did not entail only the “physical purity of a girl,” i.e., an “intact hymen,” but implied that “the girl should avoid any social contact with men that is automatically associated with sexual desire” (Markides et al. 1978).

So important was the value of female purity that during wedding celebrations, the visual display of the bloodstained sheets, proving the bride’s virginity, had central importance. It has been noted (Argyrou 1996) that the virginity rite “expressed female subjugation but also the wider subjugation of younger people of both sexes to their elders and in particular their parents,” for the rite symbolized in a “tangible and indisputable way” that the parents had been managing and controlling the family well. Argyrou (1996) demonstrates how changes to the rite, leading to its disappearance, reflect changes in the power relations between the older and younger generations, as well as between the sexes. The first set of changes became visible in the 1940s, when new employment opportunities were created, giving young men the opportunity to move to the towns for jobs. The sons of wealthier parents moved to towns in order to obtain secondary education. Eventually, with mass education, this became true for all classes and for both sexes. Youngsters were now exposed to new ideas and values through books, magazines, and newspapers. Overall, opportunities for economic independence and education decreased the dependence of the young on their parents and eroded the latter’s authority and powers of control, as children could be more knowledgeable or competent than their parents in some areas.

Other developments also contributed to the changing nature of power relationships between generations. For instance, a young man moving to a town often found it practical to stay with his in-laws, so that his fiancée and mother-in-law could look after him and he could also save money to contribute to the costs of building a house. This practicality made vigilant observation of the engaged youngsters difficult for the parents. It also meant that parents themselves chose to avoid the embarrassment of asking for evidence of a bride’s virginity, whereas the couple itself increasingly considered the matter their private affair rather than a public spectacle. By the late 1960s and 1970s, “the practice of having fiancees move in with their in-laws became generalized” and “engaged youngsters were sleeping together with the parents knowledge and implicit consent.” Loizos (1975) notes that, in fact, by the 1960s, “youngsters had acquired power to veto their parents’ choice of marriage partner.” Balswick (1973) points out that by this time, young people considered “romantic love” to be of primary importance, and this development was responsible for the challenging of parentally arranged marriages. The concept of romantic love was related to changing sexual standards. For if love was felt to be a prerequisite for marriage, then only the young people themselves could determine the existence of love, and this entailed a certain amount of familiarity with members of the opposite sex. Thus “dating” started becoming common.

Such developments cannot be taken to imply that youngsters have now been liberated from traditional values and that virginity and female chastity are no longer important to men. In fact, as Argyrou (1996) reminds us, what has changed has mostly to do with the “timing of sexual access to the bride.” Furthermore, the traditional “double standards,” requiring a woman to be a virgin until she marries but not so the man, are still prevalent in Cypriot society. Similarly, although some expected that modernization and romantic love would lead to the demise of the dowry system (Balswick 1973), the practice seems to be going strong with some minor changes. Nowadays, the bride’s parents are still the ones who contribute to the house and most other items needed for setting up the new household. The groom’s parents are expected to have invested considerably in their son’s education, which will have led, or hopefully will lead in the future, to very good employment.

After 1974, with the displacement and impoverishment of a third of the population, who lost all their wealth and became refugees so they could not give any dowry to their children, the tradition suffered a setback. However, traditional values and expectations were so strong that the state was pushed to donate land or money to all unmarried daughters of refugee families as a form of dowry for establishing their own households in the free south. Besides, the economic recovery and boom after the 1980s has enabled Cypriots to continue with the practice (Stavrou 1992). Some analysts point out that the willingness of Cypriot parents “for deferred gratification” in order to invest in their children’s dowry, may actually itself be one of the main reasons for the continued success of Cyprus’s economy (Balswick 1973, Mavratsas 1992). The above realities may account for an interesting paradox, revealed by social surveys. On the one hand, young Cypriots claim that love is what is important in marriage and that the giving of a dowry is an outdated practice that they do not believe in. On the other hand, they say that parents should “help” with a house and in other ways so the young couple can make a start in life (Intercollege 1996). This seems to vindicate Argyrou’s (1996) position that we are looking at developments in sexual mores and related practices, which are the result of “a struggle in which children won a dominated freedom and parents retained partial control through compromise.”

D. Religious Beliefs Affecting Sexuality

In Cypriot society, the religious attitudes and beliefs of the Greek Orthodox Church exercise a strong influence on the sexual attitudes and behavior of the people. Some insight into this factor can be gained from the responses of Greek Orthodox priests to a semi-structured questionnaire regarding seven sexual topics: a) adultery, b) premarital sex, c) masturbation, d) abortion, e) contraception, f) homosexuality, and g) coital abstention. There were 130 (23.2%) responses from the total of 560 questionnaires distributed to all priests on the island, followed up with face-to-face interviews of 27 of the priests (Georgiou 1990).

On the issue of premarital sex, the priests were asked for their pastoral response to the following “situation”:

A young, engaged Christian couple who has been cohabiting for three years is very much in love, but they cannot marry immediately as they have a number of difficulties. As they do not want to have sexual intercourse before the marriage ceremony, but are involved in heavy petting, they approach a priest for advice. (Georgiou 1990)

For their pastoral advice, the priests chose the following:

A thematic analysis was performed using subjective responses based on 14 mutually exclusive general categories. The responses were: The couple:

Face-to-face interviews with the 27 priests revealed what appeared to be a confused attitude toward premarital sex. They offered a variety of legalistic definitions of premarital sex, which dichotomized sexual acts into “acceptable” or “not acceptable.” Some, for example, drew the line of “acceptability” at light kissing between a couple engaged to be married. Others drew the line at a light caress, rejecting all other sexual expressions as either unacceptable or sinful, and so on and so forth. There was also no consensus as to why premarital sex was a sin. The majority said that it was a sin because the Orthodox Church said so. None of the priests, however, could refer to any specific writings of the Orthodox Church to validate their claim. (See other responses from this survey of priests on homosexuality in Section 6B, on contraception in Section 9A, and on abortion in Section 9B.)

3. Knowledge and Education about Sexuality

A. Government Policies and Programs

There are no specific government policies and programs for sex education. There are no formal sex education programs taught in schools beyond the biology lessons, which cover subjects such as the anatomy and physiology of the reproductive organs, fertilization, twins and genetics, sexually transmitted diseases, changes during puberty, and birthing. These lessons are normally taught by biology teachers, and it is left to their discretion to answer specific questions that may be raised in class. These lessons are taught from the age of 15 upwards.

B. Informal Sources of Sexual Knowledge

There is an element of informal sex education from organizations such as the Family Planning Organization, but this only covers specific groups of people, such as married women seeking gynecological or family planning assistance, soldiers doing their National Guard service, and other minority groups. There is also some teaching in hospitals and schools, but limited staff does not allow for further expansion.

When the main author arrived on Cyprus from the United Kingdom in 1983, there were no explicit sexual articles published in the Cypriot media for fear of reprisals. I wrote my first article on Cypriot male sexuality during this period, but found it impossible to find an editor willing to publish it in their newspaper, as it contained words such as “penis” and “vagina.” There seemed to be an inherent fear of publishing sexual articles of any nature, as the editors believed that there would be a volcanic eruption from the Church and the conservative people of Cyprus. They could not have been further from the truth! When a brave editor of a relatively small, radical right-wing newspaper decided to publish the article, there was applause from many sectors of society; one of the long-lasting, but superfluous taboos had been broken! Cypriots were thirsting to learn more about sexuality. After the newspaper editor’s initial enthusiasm, I proposed a weekly column, which would allow people to write in their problems anonymously and receive replies in the newspaper. He agreed, and the first sexual column in the history of Cyprus was launched in 1984 in the newspaper Alitheia (The Truth). The sales of this particular small newspaper increased dramatically in just over a year!

The degree of sexual ignorance from the questions being received was apparent: “Can I get pregnant by swallowing sperm?” “What is the clitoris?” and many, many other questions touching on topics such as anal sex, transvestitism, telephone sex, and sexual problems. At least a dozen letters were received every day. The columns gave people from all age groups and all walks of life an opportunity to write their questions or problems about sexuality, and get a response published in the media for all to read. The weekly column in the popular magazine To Periodiko, which ran from 1984 to 1994, reached a peak audience in excess of 30,000 people weekly. More than 1,000 articles covering all aspects of sexuality were published during this period. This, along with a weekly radio program titled Human Sexuality, broadcast live every Saturday at lunch time by the author, covered a wide variety of sexual topics and provided a large part of the informal sex education of the population. After a few years, other newspapers began to publish articles, usually translated from foreign magazines. Beginning in September 1999, this editor completed a series of six television programs on human sexuality for EF-EM, a local TV station in Larnaca. (See Section 10, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, for survey data on the knowledge of adolescents regarding STDs.)

In the Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Practices (KABP) Survey on AIDS (Georgiou & Veresies 1990, 1991; see also Sections 5B, Interpersonal Heterosexual Behaviors, Adolescents, 6A, Homoerotic, Homosexual, and Bisexual Behaviors, Children and Adolescents, and 10A, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS), 3,176 15- to 18-year-old schoolchildren gave us additional insights into their sources of sexuality information. The respondents reported receiving their first sexual information from five main sources: books and periodicals (24.1%), newspapers and magazines (15.4%), friends (12.0%), videos (12.3%), and television (12.2%). It is not clear from the questionnaire, however, who is actually providing this information in the sources mentioned. Sex differences showed that the boys were more likely to obtain their information from videos (9% vs. 3.3%), probably commercial pornography, while the girls were more likely to obtain their information from books and periodicals (14.7% vs. 9.4%) and mother (4.4% vs. 0.6%). It appears that newspapers and magazines are read equally by both. Subsequent sources of additional sexual information included: television (13.2%), schoolteachers (12.3%), and medical personnel (11.7%). The same-sex differences as those noted above emerged, with the exception of books and periodicals, which are again read equally by both sexes.

When asked, “Where would you prefer to get information about human sexual behavior? (Circle only your first choice),” the great majority of respondents preferred to obtain their information from books and periodicals (24.1%), followed by newspapers and magazines (15.4%), friends (12.6%), videos (12.3%), and television (12.2%). All the other responses were below the 5% level.

It should be noted here that there are no known sex education videos circulating in Cyprus, apart from the commercial pornographic videos that are freely available for rental in most video shops, certainly before the clamp-down on piracy came about. It therefore appears that 12.3% of the respondents are obtaining their information from pornographic videos. When asked to name their second preferred source of sexual information, students listed books and periodicals (16.1%), newspapers and magazines (14.2%), television (13.7%), videos (12.7%), and friends (11.4%). The remaining responses were below the 5% level. Sex differences showed that more males than females would prefer the radio as an important second source of sexual information (108 males vs. 46 females), newspapers and magazines (105 males vs. 70 females), television (224 males vs. 194 females), and videos (111 males vs. 38 females). More females than males would prefer sources such as books and journals (153 females vs. 137 males), mother (191 females vs. 56 males), and doctors and nurses (226 females vs. 143 males).

The survey gave no information regarding the specific books, videos, and magazines that students used, or how accurate the sex information was. Moreover, it is not clear how the students interpreted the question, “From where do you get information about human sexuality?” in a country where human sexuality courses have never been taught formally at school. Under the circumstances, the concept of “human sexuality” may be a difficult one for teenagers to interpret.

4. Autoerotic Behaviors and Patterns

A. Children and Adolescents

The only data available on child and adolescent autoerotic behavior comes from retrospective histories taken with a clinical sample of 840 patients whom the main author saw in clinical practice between 1993 and 1996. While male masturbation in this sample is far more prevalent than female masturbation (85% vs. 15%), approximately 50% of masturbating females felt guilty about this behavior compared with 48% of males.

It appears that parents also have fears of the female losing her virginity if she is allowed to “play about down there!” Virginity is related to the “honor” (timi) of the family, and this is very carefully guarded. Males, on the other hand, are often encouraged and “cajoled” to continue, if they are caught fondling their genitals in infancy, as this is seen as a normal part of growing up. Given that the females get rather negative messages when caught masturbating, and indeed may be chastised for this behavior, then it is perhaps not a surprise to find that only 15% of the females in this sample masturbated.

Still, it may be a little surprising that such a large number of Cypriot girls begin masturbating at such a young age, before age 10. One of the factors is certainly the early growth spurt that females have in relation to boys, but there are probably other explanations also. Most males learn how to masturbate from their friends (77%) compared to only 26.5% of females. The majority of girls, however, learn to masturbate by themselves, through experimentation or accident (54%), compared to fewer boys (21%) that learn in this way. Again, more girls (19%) learn to masturbate from the media, books, magazines, and the like, compared to about 2% of boys. It appears that girls tend not to talk as openly as boys do with their peers about masturbating, and therefore, this is not the source of their information. Girls, it appears, prefer to find their sexual information from books and magazines, and self-experiment in the privacy of their own home.

The main author’s clinical experience has shown that there is a widely reported incidence of childhood masturbation from infancy to nursery-school age. These cases are often reported by parents and are accepted by parents and caretakers if the child is male, and it is often joked about: “He’s as potent as his father. Look, he’s started young.” If the child is female, such behavior is often frowned upon, with punishment as a consequence if it continues. Over the last decade, I have had a number of parents coming to the clinic to discuss the “normality” of their young infant daughter’s masturbatory behavior, sometimes in horror that their little “innocent” should be capable of such “disgusting” actions! I have yet to see a parent come to discuss their son’s masturbatory behavior!

B. Adults

There are no data available for adult masturbation, but from anecdotal evidence in clinical practice I would say that adult masturbation in a stable relationship is quite rare for both sexes. There are the few occasions when masturbation is reported by a married man who has problems approaching his wife sexually because of marital discord, but this occurred in less than 1% of the clinical population. I believe that the Cypriot male views masturbation more as a “child’s thing,” and not the sort of thing that a “man” does, unless compelled to do so by circumstances.

Women, on the other hand, will often refuse to masturbate even when the husband is in therapy, believing that coitus is the “proper thing.” They prefer not to become part of the therapy until it reaches a stage where coitus is allowed. It follows from this that the treatment of anorgasmia using the traditional European or American treatment protocols is doomed to failure in Cyprus, as masturbating to orgasm is the essence of this therapy. (In Cyprus, one has to be a very creative sex therapist to succeed!)

5. Interpersonal Heterosexual Behaviors

A. Children

No data have been gathered to date regarding children’s sexuality or sexual rehearsal play in Cyprus.

B. Adolescents

The only systematic survey that has been conducted to date in Cyprus regarding adolescent sexuality involves a sample of 3,176 (1,528 male and 1,643 female) Cypriot lyceum students conducted by Georgiou and Veresies in 1990 and 1991. The Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Practices (KABP) Survey was organized and completed along the lines of work carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Programme on AIDS, the Social and Behavioral Research Unit (SBR), the Cyprus National AIDS Committee, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education in Cyprus. The whole project was headed by the main author of this chapter as the WHO Principal Investigator.

Even though the premise of the research was to look at the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of Cypriot adolescents toward HIV infection and AIDS, many of the 177 questions in the survey touched on other aspects of human sexuality. There were two questionnaires, one for high school adolescents and another for head teachers. A multistage random-cluster sampling strategy was used to obtain data for the survey, using 27 schools—20 (79.2% of the sample) in urban areas and 7 (20.8%) in rural ones. The 177-question survey was answered anonymously, and covered the following areas: sociodemographics, sources of information on AIDS, knowledge of AIDS, attitudes and beliefs about AIDS, attitudes toward people with AIDS, knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), leisure-time activities, perceived norms in certain health-related behavior, drinking and drug abuse, attitudes about condom use, and sexual behavior.

Adolescent Attitudes and Behavior

Previous Heterosexual Experiences. Students were asked to respond to a series of questions about individual behaviors ranging from hugging to anal sex. Even though hugging, deep kissing, and petting are not considered sexual activities through which HIV is transmitted, they are often enough preliminary steps toward sexual intercourse. Therefore, the percentage of young people engaging in them indicates when these steps toward more-advanced sexual activity are first taken (see Table 1).

Three quarters of the adolescents (76.7%) surveyed have experienced hugging at least once. Of these, the majority were boys (1,340 boys vs. 1,075 girls). One in six (15%) of the boys and one third (32%) of the girls were “sexually inexperienced,” not having engaged even in petting. About half of the students have experienced deep open-mouth kissing and some sort of petting above the waist. Again, the majority of these were boys (963 boys vs. 439 girls). About one third have petted below the waist (850 boys vs. 289 girls) and a further one third have slept together without sexual intercourse (628 boys vs. 242 girls). Sexual intercourse was attempted by approximately one quarter (18.6%) of the students (550 boys vs. 97 girls), which means that about 94% of the girls and two thirds (66%) of the boys were technically still virgins, even though they may have had other sexual experiences.

Judging from the figures for sex differences, it appears that the boys are not having sexual intercourse with the indigenous females. This raises the question of who their sexual partners are. Is it mostly with prostitutes, either local girls or imported “artists,” or is it with tourist girls? This data does not answer these questions, but they are definitely worth further investigation because of the implications for HIV transmission.

A further 25% of the respondents reported experiencing oral sex at least once (563 boys vs. 103 girls).

There is no doubt that the most dangerous sexual activity in terms of contracting HIV is receptive anal sexual intercourse. Masters, Johnson, and Kolodny (1988) point out that the risk from a single episode of anal intercourse with an infected partner is considerably higher than with other sexual activities—probably on the order of one in 50 to 100. Just over 15% of the respondents reported experiencing anal or rectal sex. Of these, the majority were boys (424 boys vs. 41 girls). It would certainly be worth investigating further whether the boys had homosexual or heterosexual anal intercourse, whether they had used a condom, and whether they were the receptors or the penetrators. It is also not clear why there should be so many boys participating in anal intercourse. If a large majority of girls were involved, this would be understandable, given the patriarchal attitudes that prevail in Cyprus regarding the preservation of a girl’s (“technical”) virginity. Perhaps the males are using anal sex as a means of birth control.

Among the 19.4% of respondents reporting having had vaginal intercourse, 11.7% (296 males and 75 females) reported having had one or two sexual partners, 4% (123 boys and 5 girls) between three and six partners, and 3.7% (115 boys and 4 girls) admitted to seven or more partners.

Of those who reported vaginal intercourse, the most frequent age of first intercourse was 14 to 16 years old, 14.4% (see Table 2). Girls showed a marked increase in sexual intercourse starting at age 15, whereas for boys, a marked increase was noted after age 13. The figures for the 11- and 12-year-olds appear to be rather high on first impression and need to be examined further (see also Table 6.)

Table 3 shows the most common reasons given for having a first coital experience. Eleven males and only two females reported being raped; from anecdotal clinical evidence, male adolescent rape is uncommon in Cyprus.

Contraceptive and Prophylactic Condom Use. Knowledge and use of condoms is another important area of adolescent sexual behavior, with 2,298 (72.4%; 1,378 boys vs. 915 girls) admitting they had seen a condom, and 65.6% (1,312 boys vs. 771 girls) saying they knew how to use them. Of the roughly one-in-four teens who had had sex, 6.7% (168 boys and 45 girls) had never used a condom, 7.0% (193 boys and 7 girls) had used a condom sometimes, 3.6% (108 boys and 7 girls) most times, and 3.9% (110 boys and 15 girls) always.

These findings have dire implications for HIV and other STD transmission. Only one in five students who had had sexual intercourse at least once had always used condoms. Three out of four were unprotected sometimes or all of the time. Moreover, it is not clear from the question whether the condom was used correctly or not, whether it was placed on the penis before any type of intromission, or whether it was placed on the penis just before ejaculation for purely contraceptive purposes. It is also not clear whether the condom was used for other sexual practices, such as anal and oral sex, which are also high-risk behaviors. These issues can be incorporated into any safe-sex and health education program.

Kinds and Duration of Relationships. The disparity between a much higher incidence of sexual intercourse for Cypriot males and a much lower incidence for females raises the question about who the females are that these young men are having sex with. Questions were asked regarding the age of the sexual partner, the duration of the relationship, and the demographic identity of sexual partners. Given the very high influx of tourists every year—for the past six or seven years, tourists have outnumbered the indigenous Cypriots—questions were asked that differentiated between the kinds of sexual partners Cypriot men and women have. Table 4 analyses the responses to these questions.

It appears that there are a large number of longstanding relationships with indigenous Cypriots. A total of 434 students (13.7%) said that they had a longstanding relationship with someone their own age. Of these, there were many more boys than girls (346 boys vs. 88 girls). A further 146 (4.6%) admitted to having sexual intercourse with a Cypriot partner their own age whom they had recently met. Again, the majority of these were males (126 males vs. 20 females).

Another category of partner preference that has implications for HIV transmission are the large number of students who had sexual intercourse with tourists their own age whom they had recently met. The overwhelming majority of these were boys (236 boys vs. 13 girls). Another equally potentially high-risk behavior was with tourists their own age whom they had known a while, even though it is not clear how long a term is indicated by “a while.” Of these, again the majority were males (181 males vs. 14 females). To the list of potentially high-risk partners could be added the students who had coitus with older tourists whom they had just met (120 males vs. 12 females), and the older tourists whom they had known for some time (77 males vs. 15 females). Further, potentially high-risk partners would include Cypriot prostitutes (212 males vs. 4 females) and foreign prostitutes (133 males vs. 7 females). It is not clear why there are a small number of females in the prostitute categories, as it is unlikely that they frequented a male prostitute. Perhaps they misinterpreted the question to mean that they themselves were paid for having sexual intercourse—there have been such known cases in Cyprus among the student population.

Cohabitation. In response to the question, “Have you ever lived with a man or a woman as a regular sexual partner without being married?” 148 (4.7%; 134 boys and 14 girls) said that they had cohabited with a sexual partner before marriage.

Teen Pregnancy. A total of 73 boys said that they had made their partners pregnant, and a further 11 girls admitted to being made pregnant by their boyfriends.

Age of Marriage. Table 5 summarizes the results of the question, “At what age would you like to marry?”

C. Adults

The following data were obtained from a clinical population of 840 clients of varying ages and educational backgrounds (see Section 12, Sexual Dysfunctions, Counseling, and Therapies, for details on sample and methodology).

Virginity

It is clear that far fewer males (9.4%) than females (69%) are virgins when they become engaged or marry. “Family honor” is at stake because of the prevailing belief that a nonvirgin or “soiled” bride should be considered a second-rate citizen in no way equal in social and ethical standing to a virgin bride. Indeed, many brides-to-be have been accused of not being a virgin by their fiancés on the first night. This often results in both families getting involved, taking the female by force to be examined by a gynecologist, and deciding whether the couple should stay together based upon the doctor’s diagnosis. Needless to say, such affairs are extremely degrading for the female involved. Even if the couple decides to stay together, there is no guarantee their relationship will stabilize and survive. In my clinical practice, I have encountered many cases of males who believe that virgin females should bleed like a chicken with it’s head chopped off! The males expect to see much blood on the sheets, and if this does not happen—which inevitably it does not—then the accusations will begin, and the horrid saga begins. (See also comments on premarital sex under Sociolegal Status of Males and Females, Children and Adults, in Section 1A.)

Nonvirgins before marriage who have slept with a partner before making a firm commitment to marriage will often visit a gynecologist and ask for a hymenorrhaphy or hymen-repair operation. This is one way of “fooling” the potential husband and avoid being ridiculed and belittled by the “expert” spouse who thinks that he has the ability to differentiate between a virgin and nonvirgin with his penis on the first night. My national live radio program at Radio Proto (1991 to 1992) and my advice column in the best-selling national magazine To Periodiko received many questions about hymen-repair operations. Gynecologists I spoke with admitted performing at least two or three such operations a week, for a total of thousands annually on the island.

Tables 6, 7, and 8 summarize some responses from the author’s clinical population of 840 adults. There appears to be quite a range in the frequency of sex, with a fairly even spread between the sexes (Table 8). About two thirds of the sample have sex more than twice weekly, with the remaining third less than once weekly. Remember that this is a clinical sample that has come for sex therapy for some sexual dysfunction or other, which inevitably adversely affects the frequency of lovemaking. This picture may not be so representative of the general Cypriot population. My guess is that, given our Mediterranean temperament, we Cypriots are generally more hot-blooded than this!

There is a clearly significant difference between the sexes regarding the number of sexual partners in their lifetime (see Table 9). Two thirds of the women tended to stick with only one partner mostly, compared to about 7% of males, while very few women have more than two to three partners compared to males (8% of females vs. 73% of males). Whether this reflects the difference between the sexes or the inhibitions and taboos that exist in the Cypriot culture is not clear; the editor’s guess is that the taboo placed upon female “promiscuity” by family and society is certainly a hindrance to moving from one partner to the other. Certainly, females that are likely to have multiple partners that are known in society will be labeled with very nasty names, such as “used,” “prostitute,” “ethically free,” and others. These females tend to have difficulties finding a marriage partner, particularly if their behavior is well known. Usually, when a marriage is about to take place, both sets of parents will begin conducting an informal “character” assessment by asking various individuals in the close community of the prenuptials for a character reference. If the girl has a “bad name” in this community, then this will be reported to the potential bridegroom’s parents who will strongly advise their son not to proceed, and will continue to stand as an obstacle until their son “sees sense”! These societal norms and taboos are enough for young girls not to consciously want to repeat one mistake twice or more.

About one third of males and one fifth of females had never experienced giving or receiving cunnilingus (see Table 10). A very small percentage of males tend to dislike giving cunnilingus (7%), whereas a much larger number of females dislike the act (21%), which could be for a variety of reasons. The most common reason cited by women in this sample was the partner’s inexperience, his ignorance about the clitoris, and his or her belief that the vagina is the most stimulating and sensitive of areas. Also cited were the inhibitions of females who feel that they are dirty “down there,” or that coitus is the only “acceptable” form of sex.

Not surprisingly, very few males do not enjoy being fellated—these being in the older age groups, which tend  to be a lot more conservative in their sexual behaviors. About a fifth of the women in this clinical sample did not like giving fellatio to their partners, again probably related to taboos and inhibitions rife within the Cypriot community. Over a third of the men and a quarter of the women had never experienced this sexual behavior, but again these tend to be in the older age groups above 50 years old in the lower working social classes. Certainly, one third of the women thoroughly enjoyed it, as did well over half of the men (see Table 11).

A majority of the men and women who reported experimenting with anal sex appear divided about equally between those who tried it once or twice and those who were a bit more persistent, trying it three to six times before deciding not to continue with this sexual outlet (see Table 12). A third of the women and 44% of the men who tried anal sex appear to have incorporated this outlet into their sex lifestyle on a perhaps more regular basis, despite the disapproval of this behavior by the Greek Orthodox Church and despite it generally being considered a “no-no” by most couples. Perhaps one of the reasons for its fairly widespread occurrence among both sexes is the availability and popularity of pornography. Additional questioning of this clinical population revealed that it is mostly the male who will “subtly coerce” his partner into trying it, mostly for the sake of experimentation, after viewing anal sex on a pornographic video. In many cases, the reaction of the wife will determine the frequency of anal sex thereafter.

Unfortunately, there has been no epidemiological study of the sexual behavior of Cypriots. This small clinical sample is the only data available at present and it is limited by focusing on details of sexual functioning among a group of people who at some point in their lives developed a sexual dysfunction. In my opinion, this does not necessarily mean that the sexual histories and behaviors of these particular people differ from those without sexual dysfunctions, as this sample of people were also likely “normal”—without dysfunction—at some point before they decided to seek sex therapy. Their dysfunctions did not exist all their lives. The ideal, of course, is to have a methodologically sound, longitudinal epidemiological study with a substantial random sample of subjects. The lack of funds at present has made this very difficult to impossible.

Divorce, Extramarital Sex, Single Mothers, and Domestic Violence

See comments under Sociolegal Status of Males and Females, Children and Adults, in Section 1A.

6. Homoerotic, Homosexual, and Bisexual Behaviors

A. Children and Adolescents

Previous Homoerotic or Homosexual Experiences

Many adolescents have some kind of sexual interaction with same-sex peers. This fairly common behavior, particularly among young adolescent males, might best be referred to as “homoerotic” rather than “homosexual.” Sorenson (1973) found that about 9% of young people in the United States had one or more sexuoerotic experiences with someone of their own sex between the ages of 13 to 19. The likelihood of homoerotic activities in adolescence is significantly greater among those who have had same-sex experiences prior to adolescence. Indeed, most adolescents have their first homoerotic experience with another adolescent.

In the Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Practices (KABP) Survey (Georgiou & Veresies 1990, 1991), about 34% of the respondents reported having hugged someone of the same sex at least once. Of these students, the majority were girls (722 girls vs. 354 boys). A further 7.9% had kissed passionately and a further 5.3% had petted above the waist—of these the majority were males. Table 13 summarizes the frequency of various sexual activities with a same-sex partner.

The majority of students who reported experiencing same-sex anal intercourse were males (141 males vs. 9 females). It is not clear, however, how these 9 females could be involved in homosexual anal