Forget the action of kissing or romance; the words like ‘sex’ and ‘kiss’ are prohibited from the household dictionary.

Sexual pleasure for women is considered a big taboo in South Asia, especially in Pakistan. People consider it indecent to discuss ‘sex’, and when there is a link between a woman and the word ‘sex’, the reactions becomes worse. Throughout time, people have often shown disgust towards women who are sexually active or open up about their experiences.

I grew up learning about sex from the books I read and the hushed conversations that followed in school later. I say sex and not intimacy, but there’s only so much intimacy featured within media and pop culture. Intimacy comes from people - and the people around me seemed to have no idea what it meant.