Malaysia bans sale of British sex education book

2012-02-23 00:08:22 GMT+7 (ICT)

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Malaysian authorities on Tuesday ordered bookstores to stop selling a classic children's sex education book by a British author, local media reported on Wednesday.

Malaysia's Home Ministry ordered a temporary halt to the sales of Peter Mayle's illustrated book "Where Did I Come From?" to study if the content could harm the community's "moral." The educational book was first published in 1984 and describes the reproductive process from intercourse to birth.

"If the contents are found to have elements that could harm the moral of the community, we would ban it," the ministry's deputy secretary-general Datuk Abdul Rahim Mohd Radzi said, as quoted by the Malaysian Insider.

An official of the ruling Umno party claimed to have received many complaints from the public about the book's graphic description of 'love-making between two people.' He added that the book has illustrations of a naked man and woman and teaches children the proper names of various parts of the anatomy.

"The degree of obscenity inside the book was too much," the official said. "This is a violation of Section 292 of the Penal Code, which deals with distribution or sale of pornographic materials. We believe that some 200 million copies of the book have been printed since it was published in 1997."

The official added that the book may be considered suitable for children in the author's home country but it is not suitable for Malaysia, where it only recently reached bookstores.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-02-23

One big step backwards for children and and even bigger step backwards for Malaysia!

"and teaches children the proper names of various parts of the anatomy."..

Oh my god! They dare to educate children!!!!

Quick Robin! To the batcave! (why do I always have to go up the rope first Batman?)

You wouldn't want young girls knowing the true function of bits of their anatomy that offend their misogynistic clerics who advocate them being chopped off.

I was reading on how teen sex and pregnancy out of wedlock in Malaysia is the "elephant in the room". Some states have set up special schools for out of wedlock young mothers so they can carry on learning without the stigma that would preclude them from attending normal school classes. Of course the special schooling will not mention anything about condoms and shagging.