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Empowering Youths Start With Comprehensive Sex Education

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21 Feb 2022

7 Min Read

Natasha Leong (Guest Contributor) , Ailyn Low (Editor)

IN THIS ARTICLE

t’s time we had a more informed sex education system for our youths. But are we ready for it?

 

Trigger Warning! This article consists of topics revolving around rape and sexual violence. Please read at your own discretion.

 

Knock-knock jokes — the all-ages, classic blague infused with the comedians’ own twists. Or perhaps an antiquated gag that has long surpassed its life expectancy. When humour relies heavily on its audience, what differentiates a good joke from a bad one is subjective. But when it involves unorthodox topics like suicide, rape, and racism, among other themes, its contexts speak volumes of its appropriateness. 

 

So often girls like Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam find themselves appalled by their male counterparts cackling at rape jokes. Throw a male teacher-comedian into the mix, saying, “If you want to rape someone, make sure they’re over 18”, and its context leaves no room for double entendres. If sexist humour reflects a pervasive culture of tolerance towards the sexual violence and gender inequality of women, it’s easy to extrapolate the effects of rape jokes as it’s found to spur a disposition to rape

 

We bore witness to the backlash towards Ain’s account of her disturbing experience and the subsequent #MakeSchoolASaferPlace movement as it testified to the underlying nature of Malaysia’s current normative views. Unplanned pregnancies, child marriages, and baby dumping are among the societal issues stacked above this insidious social norm. Instead of deep diving into what can be done to curb it, let’s take a step back and reexamine the core of why these societal issues continue to sprout.

 

The Flaws in Malaysia’s Sex Education System: A Need for Change

A man, on his knees with his hands clasped together, praying amongst pews.

The Theory of Chastity, Sex, and Education

 

Sex education has always had roots in religious morality. Religions across the globe have always been obsessed with purity, and singularly, of women. Ironically, patriarchal interpretations of religious scripts drives the establishment of sexual purity, consequently promoting rape culture and a social norm of victim shaming.

 

In fact, religion was shown effective in reducing sexually active female youths only. Gender socialisation and roles possibly influence this disparity in religiosity.

 

Abstinence-only option perpetuates and emphasises the gender stereotypes of female chasity and male sexual deprivation, putting the onus on girls to guard themselves against the lustful nature of men by watching what they wear and behave around them.

 

Meanwhile, male responsibility is watered down. In scenarios of rape and sexual assault of women, the blame is automatically on how much skin she bore and the possibility that she batted her eyelashes as a seductive gaze.

 

The current Malaysian sex education curriculum, Pendidikan Kesihatan Reproduktif dan Sosial (PEKERTI or PEERS), promotes abstinence altogether and instills fear of unplanned pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) to combat premarital sex. However, the theoretical success of abstinence-only curriculum was disproved in the U.S. and Singapore as it positively correlated with teenage pregnancy and birth rates while failing to decrease STDs.  

 

A survey on sex education in schools across Malaysia exposed the cracks in PEERS. Other than the faultiness of the pro-abstinence principle, the educational content was shallow, vague, and void of information on contraception and safe sex. Educators relied on analogies and metaphors, included their own opinions and beliefs (particularly religious and cultural ones), and delivered the content casually. Evidenced by 35% of female youths disbelieving that first-time sex can lead to pregnancy and 1 in 5 Malaysians believing the involvement of mosquitoes in STD transmissions, need I say more on how lacking our sex education curriculum is?

A Venn diagram showing the common cause of baby dumping, unplanned pregnancies, and child marriage is underage pregnancy.

The Lack of Sex Education and Social Issues: How It Links

 

The holy trifecta of unplanned pregnancies, child marriages, and baby dumping is best illustrated by a Venn diagram and at their intersection lies a problematic union of each issue — teenage pregnancy.

 

Many teenagers and children with absent caregivers, resulting in lesser supervision of their activities, has led 63% of premarital voluntary sex to teenage pregnancy, especially with limited access to contraception. Evidently, if sex education was comprehensive enough to revolve around technical and emotional aspects of sex, including the youths’ responsibilities, its long-term effects could be seen in the abatements of these social issues.

 

Are you aware that the legal age of sexual consent is 16 years and punishable by law? Many youths aren’t. When 19% of children below 10 have been exposed to porn, how many more teenagers, in their healthy sexual developments fueled by curiosity, are consuming it and skewed by its sexual depictions?

 

In our conservative society, contraceptives are assumed to promote promiscuity. Hence, it isn’t surprising that the cause of unplanned pregnancies, contributing to the cumulative 424 cases of baby dumping from 2018 to 2021, could ultimately be caused by failures in contraceptive methods and the lack of its application during sexual intercourse. To add fuel to the fire, baby dumping cases are on the rise and, bear in mind, these statistics are underreported with an annual 18,000 underage pregnancies at the core of it.

 

While baby hatches serve as an important initiative to keep unwanted babies safe, it’s unfortunately only a short-term solution to a deep-rooted problem. So, if you’re underaged and pregnant, your choices are down to baby dumping and illegal abortions if you manage to keep it hush. Otherwise, you’d find yourself walking down the altar as a child bride. 

 

It’s easy to blame carelessness on this chain reaction brought about by premarital sex when in reality, it’s the lack of quality education that could empower them in their sexual decisions. The solution is simple: Comprehensive sex education (CSE).

 

A girl holding an opened book up and covering her face.

Comprehensive Sex Education: A Path Towards Empowerment and Responsibility

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) defined it as ‘an age-appropriate, culturally relevant approach to teaching about sexuality and relationships by providing scientifically accurate, realistic, non-judgmental information.’

 

Not only does it offer abstinence as an option, it teaches on contraception, safe sex, and scientifically accurate knowledge, including menstrual health and hygiene, along with the skills and attitudes on fostering healthy social and sexual relationships. It also addresses the impacts of gender norms and gender relations, cultural values, and socio-psychological aspects of such relationships.

 

In recent years, Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia and Laos committed to implement CSE nationwide and in the experiences of the U.S., Nigeria, Mexico and Kenya. CSE prevented unintended teenage pregnancies, delayed sexual debut, and increased condom use while addressing gender or power relations which seemed to significantly reduce pregnancies and STDs.

 

With CSE’s age-appropriate content, its implementation is also linked to increased self-protective behaviour of children where they learn the correct anatomical terms of their genitals, could differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ touches, and disclosed incidents of sexual abuse more willingly, effectively discouraging their susceptibility to molesters and smoothening the forensic interview process

 

Nonetheless, there are bound to be barriers in its implementation. In many religious-centered countries, like India and Thailand, CSE is perceived as a violation of the cultural and religious values that leads to irresponsible sexual behaviour. Thailand’s nationwide implementation was incomprehensive and inconsistent across schools with many students feeling uncomfortable in the class environment. Laotian teachers weren’t confident in delivering its contents and sex education is seen as a westernised education in Brunei’s Malay Islamic monarchy. In Ghana, Kenya, Peru, and Guatemala, the effectiveness of CSE was majorly limited by the teachers’ discomfort of the subject along with inaccurate information.

 

A woman finding a packet of unopened condoms in a room.

Where Does Malaysia Stand With Comprehensive Sex Education?

 

While efforts like the Soroptimist Puberty Organising Toolkit (SPOT) movement, founded by Siti Aishah Hassan Hasri, providing CSE to 10,617 girls in 79 schools located across six states is a good start, can Malaysia ever be able to balance between cultural and religious values while providing the appropriate education for our youth at a nationwide-scale?

 

Ideally, parents and formal institutions should work hand-in-hand when educating the youths on the youth’s sexual and reproductive health. Malaysia should model instances of success in its implementation and improve on the limitations demonstrated by other countries in delivering the topic.

 

In Asia, culture and religion are intricately entwined with its societal norms and behaviour resulting in the topic of sex being taboo. Yet, it’s this that prevents us from challenging and changing problematic beliefs like how wife beating is justified under certain circumstances, including the refusal to have sex, as it aligns with the required obedience of wives under the religious sanctity of marriage.

 

To possess a culturally-sensitive and religiously-involved CSE, policymakers have to navigate through the complexity of these social issues realistically. With a religiously conservative culture like ours, leaders need to recognise that religion and culture can shape society both positively and negatively.

 

In such instances of negative influence, we then need to examine these aspects of religio-cultural traditions and weigh its societal liability. 

We’ve to reconcile the notion that culture need not reflect religious ideas and that cultural beliefs are dynamic enough to adapt and address the community’s needs.

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