Myanmar attitudes to sex undressed in textbook row
This photo taken on July 7, 2020 shows the cover of a "Life Skill" textbook for the coming academic year in Yangon, amid a debate over sex education in Myanmar. PHOTO | AFP
In Myanmar, sex out of wedlock is illegal, teenage dating is frowned upon by censorious elders and same-sex relations are still officially illegal.
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have only been taught sex ed since 2016, when the new government of Aung San Suu Kyi vowed to overhaul the country's outdated curriculum.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.
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.
