reader Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 From Channel News Asia Myanmar attitudes to sex undressed in textbook row YANGON: Unchaperoned teens, gay partners and sex workers - fictional characters in a new curriculum for Myanmar schools are causing a real-world tussle over morality in a deeply conservative nation. In Myanmar, sex out of wedlock is illegal, teenage dating is frowned upon by censorious elders and same-sex relations are still officially illegal. Yet sex education is urgently needed, say advocates. Nearly 8,000 people died in 2018 from AIDS-related diseases. The country also has the second-highest maternal death rate in Asia after Afghanistan and women's rights group IPAS estimates around a quarter of a million unsafe abortions are undertaken every year. Teenagers have only been taught sex ed since 2016, when the new government of Aung San Suu Kyi vowed to overhaul the country's outdated curriculum. But embarrassed teachers often sideline a subject tackling everything from periods and contraception to sexually-transmitted diseases. A new textbook for the coming academic year - slated to start in July - included scenarios such as teenagers feeling intimate over homework, a gay couple whose condom breaks, and a customer at a karaoke bar offering a waitress money for sex. Conservatives in the Buddhist-majority country were outraged. Continues at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/myanmar-sex-education-controversy-12916676 vinapu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williewillie Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 Any place, the British invaded and colonized, they left a heritage against homosexuality and imposed their superstitions/religion on the people. Burma was no exception. Thailand escaped that fate but was certainly influenced by the British. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
