An inability to orgasm may just be the tip of the iceberg for some women. For 25-year-old Marwa, it exemplified her struggles with her own sexuality and the intolerance she faced growing up. A refugee from Lebanon, she was raised under a strict code of modesty that viewed sexual promiscuity as sinful. For a bisexual girl who began masturbating as a teenager, living under these suppressive circumstances became increasingly difficult.

Marwa moved to the United States when she was 23, where she also began having sex with the hope of being intimate with others free of societal shame. However, she was met with yet another obstacle when she discovered she could not climax.  Although frustrated with her condition, Marwa still finds pleasure engaging in sex, going so far as to call it one of her favorite activities. For certain, Marwa isn’t letting her lack of orgasm keep her from the sexual freedoms granted to her in her new home.