Thailand in a bind over sex book

A 'Durex' condom mascot offers leaflets to Thai teenagers to educate the youth on how to use condoms to fight AIDS

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thai authorities have banned the distribution of a controversial sex education textbook and ordered their immediate recall from schools after the publication provoked a national furor.

A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, Yongyudh Sarasomba, said the government will recall 5,000 copies of the book already distributed in schools across the country, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The distribution of the remaining 95,000 copies printed will also be halted as government experts review the book to consider objections by academics and the media, he added.

Critics launched protests against the Thai-language "Manual for Teenagers" textbook, and branded the material as pornographic and offensive to Thailand's conservative Buddhist values.

The book reportedly contained a few paragraphs that encourage teenagers to masturbate to relieve their sexual urges rather than indulge in unsafe sex.

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"It's disgusting. This is dirty language and pornographic material," academic Sunee Sintundej was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying.

"Our society does not tolerate such explicitness. We have our own culture and Western standards don't apply," she added.

AIDS awareness

The controversial book was first published and distributed by Siam-care, a non-governmental organization working focused on AIDS awareness.

Siam-care sent copies of the books to some schools, which included it in their curriculum as supplementary reading at the teacher's discretion.

The government eventually provided official sponsorship of the book and published 100,000 copies for distribution in state schools after it recognized the material as useful in fighting promiscuity.

But Siam-care director Somsak Viengyangkoong slammed the critics for being unfair by taking "one page or one paragraph" on masturbation out of context without reading the whole book.

He said the book was needed to educate youngsters to prevent them from succumbing to promiscuity, sexual misconduct and eventually AIDS.

'Safe sex'

Thailand is grappling with one of the region's worst AIDS problems, with one in 60 of it's population already infected.

"Stop the hypocrisy and face the reality, and tell the youth to think about safe sex," Somsak said.

Somsak told the Associated Press that his group had distributed 5,000 copies of the book over the past four years without any problems.

Those copies are not covered by the government order.

Somsak said the controversy could have arisen because the information contained in the book was being imparted to students in an incorrect manner.

He said a trained sex educationist should read the text and properly discuss the issue.