Intimate health remains a taboo subject across many cultural contexts globally, limiting opportunities for open discussion and support. HCI research has established that religious and cultural identities and values shape discussions on intimate health, yet these dimensions are rarely embedded in the design of digital health platforms. In this paper, we adopt an Islamic Feminist lens to design a virtual environment to foster conversations about intimate health among Arab Muslim women. We conducted nineteen interviews, followed by four focus groups on an avatar-based platform (Gather.town) modeled on the majlis---a traditional Arab gathering space. While interviews revealed significant barriers to discussing intimate health, focus groups demonstrated how anonymous, avatar-based interactions in a familiar and comfortable setting can support open discussions. Our research thus advances HCI research on safe digital spaces for sensitive health conversations, and offers actionable strategies for embedding feminist, culturally, and religiously resonant design into digital health platforms.
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems