PAKISTAN: Talking in public about sex in Pakistan is taboo and can even result in a death sentence but a rural school chain is breaking new ground in the country by giving sex-education lessons

Record ID: 335489

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Talking in public about sex in Pakistan is taboo and can even result in a death sentence but a rural school chain is breaking new ground in the country by giving sex-education lessons
  • Date: 26th February 2014
  • Summary: JOHI, PAKISTAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) SECTION OF HOUSES AMIDST FIELDS MAN CROSSING BRIDGE ON CYCLE CHILDREN WALKING TO SCHOOL THROUGH WHEAT FIELDS VARIOUS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN WALKING TO SCHOOL SCHOOL CHILDREN ENTERING SCHOOL CHILDREN ENTERING SCHOOL WITH SIGNBOARD READING (English): "SHADABAD GIRLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, VILLAGE GOHRAM PANWAR" VARIOUS OF STUDENTS DURING MORNING ASSEMBLY WHICH INCLUDES BOYS FROM THE JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHER SPEAKING IN CLASS ON SEX EDUCATION STUDENTS LISTENING STUDENT LOOKING AT PICTURE IN BOOK PICTURE IN BOOK WITH CAPTION READING (Urdu): "MY GROWTH AND THE CHANGES IN ME." TEACHER SPEAKING IN SEX EDUCATION CLASS FLASHCARD WITH PICTURE OF A BOY AND A GIRL (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) HEAD OF VILLAGE SHADABAD ORGANISATION, AKBAR LASHARI, SAYING: "Usually here in Sindh, people get married to very young girls, sometimes just 10 or 12 years old. The man may be 50 years old. So we inform them about the facts of life up to marriage. We even teach them about their relationship with their husbands after marriage." TEACHER HOLDING UP FLASHCARD STUDENTS LISTENING TEACHER SHOWING FLASHCARD SHOWING A MAN WITH HIS HAND ON A YOUNG WOMAN'S KNEE FLASHCARD SHOWING YOUNG WOMAN STOPPING MAN FROM TOUCHING HER (SOUNDBITE) (Sindhi) 16-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLGIRL, SAJIDA BALOCH, SAYING: "I will tell him that this is my body. You cannot attack my body. You have no right to touch my body." TEACHER, SARAH BALOCH SPEAKING TO A CLASS OF GIRLS GIRLS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) SCHOOL TEACHER, SARAH BALOCH, SAYING: "We still have some lessons left, but we want to have a meeting with the parents first. We normally meet the mothers. So, we feel that we should first tell the mothers that this awareness is important for the girls. Then we will go ahead with the lessons that are still left." LAHORE, PAKISTAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF OFFICE OF LAHORE SCHOOL SYSTEM (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) PRESIDENT OF ALL PAKISTAN PRIVATE SCHOOLS FEDERATION, MIRZA KASHIF ALI, SAYING: "Yes, if medical students need this (sex education), then it should be taught to them. But if it is being taught to children at the primary level, it is a clear violation of law, a clear violation of the Constitution, a clear violation of Islamic values. There is no scope for it in a country like Pakistan. If it is being taught anywhere in the country, we condemn it. Action should be taken against it, according to the law." JOHI, PAKISTAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) STUDENTS WALKING OUT OF SCHOOL STUDENTS ENTERING THEIR HOUSE
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7JIQ8W8JMWXHLJ8E5POHZCVJW
  • Story Text: Sex education is common in Western schools but these ground-breaking lessons are taking place in deeply conservative rural Pakistan, a Muslim nation of 180 million people.
    Publicly talking about sex in Pakistan is taboo and can even be a death sentence. Parents have slit their daughters' throats or doused them in acid for crimes as innocuous as dancing at a wedding or looking out the window.
    Almost nowhere in Pakistan offers any kind of organised sex education. In some places it has been banned.
    But teachers operating in the village of Johi in poverty-stricken Sindh province say most families there support their sex education project.
    Around 700 girls are enrolled in eight local schools run by the Village Shadabad Organisation. Their sex education lessons - starting at age eight - cover changes in their bodies, what their rights are and how to protect themselves.
    Akbar Lashari, head of the organisation, told Reuters it was a topic people do not want to talk about, but it was fact of a life, and "we cannot close our eyes."
    Lashari said most of the girls in the villages used to hit puberty without realising they will begin to menstruate or they got married without understanding the mechanics of sex.

    "Usually here in Sindh, people get married to very young girls, sometimes just 10 or 12 years old. The man may be 50 years old. So we inform them about the facts of life up to marriage. We even teach them about their relationship with their husbands after marriage," Lashari said.
    The lessons even teach the girls about marital rape - a revolutionary idea in Pakistan, where forcing a spouse to have sex is not a crime.
    The lessons are an addition to regular classes and parents are told before they enroll their daughters. None has objected and the school has faced no opposition, Lashari said.
    The eight schools received sponsorship from BHP Billiton, an Australian company that operates a nearby gas plant, but Lashari says sex education was the villagers' own idea.
    Inside the classrooms, three girls cram into each seat made for two, listening attentively to the teachers displaying flashcards.
    One flashcard shows a girl stopping an older man from touching her leg. Other cards encourage girls to tell their parents or friends if someone is stalking them.
    The girls are shy but the lessons have sunk in.

    "I will tell him that this is my body. You cannot attack my body. You have no right to touch my body," said 16-year old Sajida Baloch.
    Teacher Sarah Baloch, whose yellow shalwar khameez brightens up the dusty school yard, said she hoped to help girls understand what growing up meant.
    Baloch teaches at a tiny school of three brick classrooms. A fourth class is held outside because there are so many girls.
    But teachers have to be wary about parents' reaction at every step.

    "We still have some lessons left, but we want to have a meeting with the parents first. We normally meet the mothers. So, we feel that we should first tell the mothers that this awareness is important for the girls. Then we will go ahead with the lessons that are still left," Baloch said.
    Some of Pakistan's most prominent schools, including the prestigious Beaconhouse School System, have been considering the type of sex education practiced in Johi.
    There is definitely demand. Lahore-based Arshad Javed has written three books on sex education and said he sells about 7,000 per year. None are sold to schools.
    But not everyone agrees with the lessons, partly because young people were not supposed to have sex before adulthood.
    Recently the government forced the elite Lahore Grammar School to remove all sex education from its curriculum.
    In neighbouring India, many government schools formally offer sex education but Pakistani government schools have no such plans.
    Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, the education minister for Sindh province, said he was shocked to hear of the lessons.
    Mirza Kashif Ali, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which says it represents more than 152,000 institutions across the country, said it was against Pakistan's Constitution and religion.

    "Yes, if medical students need this (sex education), then it should be taught to them. But if it is being taught to children at the primary level, it is a clear violation of law, a clear violation of the Constitution, a clear violation of Islamic values. There is no scope for it in a country like Pakistan. If it is being taught anywhere in the country, we condemn it. Action should be taken against it, according to the law," Ali said.
    However, Tahir Ashrafi, who heads an alliance of moderate clerics called the Pakistan Ulema Council, said such lessons were permissible under Islamic law as long as they were segregated and confined to theory.
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