We enjoy sex, but we don’t want to talk about it, we are products of sex, yet we still don’t talk about it. We expect our children to abstain from sex, yet the home as an institution forbids “sex talk”. We don’t want our children to acquire sexually transmitted diseases, yet when research show that about “80% of HIV/AIDS is spread through unprotected 
sex”. So my blog is to help understand some of the reasons why people don’t welcome sex education in their community and homes and how, if possible, to remedy this problem.
I was at a model UN conference last weekend and one of the challenges that hinders the efforts of sex educators was the resistance by nations such as Iran and Afghanistan. These two countries are undoubtedly dominated by Factions of Islam called Shi’a and Sunni. But the most challenging question is, do these countries frown upon sex education because of Islam, or is it because of their own Arab culture? The Koran, the Islamic holy book of guidance, says that “Muslims should seek for all kinds of knowledge”. While most scholars have agreed that this Quote excludes no form of knowledge as long as it is helpful to the Muslim seeking it, some express concern about the nature of sex education. So the problem is, is sex education a means of introducing “young and innocent” children to ways and means of having safe but enjoyable sex, or is it a medium of informing men and women about the importance of abstinence? In Islam, pre-marital chastity is expected of every man and woman, and so the most welcomed sex education is the preaching of Abstinence.
In other countries like the Philippines which have over 80% Catholic population, everyday contraceptives are not provided to the people, and the only form of education preached is abstinence from sex. But this has a tremendous loophole especially when Christianity is unable to prevent people from having sex but only able to deny them access to contraceptives. The result has been a tremendous rise in the population, spread of STD’s and increase in the poverty rate since most people, single mothers in most cases, give birth to more children than they could provide for. Philippines’ population is suppose to reach “ninety million this year” when most of the people in Philippines live on less than two dollars a day.
Another factor that I personally think is the name given to this particular form of education. As a representative of UNIFEM, which is the United Nations Global Fund for Women, I proposed a replacement for the term “Sex education”. I propose we call it “Women’s health education”. I said women because I believe that narrowing our scope of action will help identify the cause of the problems and solutions to them easier and faster. And also since women are the main victims of rape, STD’s and other sex related problems, it is not unreasonable to target women first before anything else. The change in the name will also make sex education more appealing as it is intended to promote the health of men and women and prevent the spread of diseases.
planning. We cannot force countries to allow their people to have sex before marriage if one of our methods of curtailing the spread of STD’s and unwanted pregnancies is abstinence. In areas like the Philippines where religion has failed to prevent people from having pre-marital affairs, it is not unreasonable to change policies that will help provide contraceptives like condom to the people as a way of preventing the spread of In countries where pre-marital chastity is the only option, what we need to preach is family STD’s and checking the population.
