Social constraints and sexual violence: experiences of female victims of sexual violence of receiving health care services

Because of the nature of sexual violence, using medical services by female victims is different from use of these services in other circumstance. Thus, this qualitative study was conducted using conventional content analysis to understand particular experiences of female victims of sexual violence of receiving medical services. In-depth non-structured interviews were performed with 10 purposefully selected female victims of sexual violence attending public and private health centers in Ahvaz and Tehran, Iran. Data extracted from interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis based on Graneheim-Lundman technique and three themes emerged: "discontinuation of treatment", "social sensitivity and stigma of loss of hymen", and "conflict between expectations and services received". These themes reflect victims’ concern about people’s treatment and fear of social stigmatization, which leads to concealing incident of sexual violence and failure to receive medical services, and encourages victims to think about illegal ways to resolve the issue of social stigma following sexual violence. These results indicate "social constraints and damage following stigma". Thus, it seems necessary to design educational programs to create changes in social attitude and eliminate judgmental behaviors of medical team toward victims of sexual violence, so as to facilitate victim's access to medical services.