Pages

Showing posts with label Safe Sex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Safe Sex. Show all posts

Indonesian Police Say Alleged Gang Rape of Teen 'Unforgivable'

Posted by Aldie at 2:05 AM | 0 comments

Jakarta Globe, March 03, 2011

Related articles

Indonesian police said on Thursday that four officers would be charged over the “unforgivable” gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in Papua province.

The officers, along with three civilians, allegedly took turns raping the girl in a house in Biak city in February, Papua provincial spokesman Wachyono told AFP.

“We have completed our investigations. Some of the suspects confessed to the rape, some didn’t,” he said.

“But we have spoken to witnesses and collected enough evidence to show they were guilty of rape and we’ll be taking the case to court.”

Local media reported that the men locked the teenager in a room and raped her repeatedly over a period of days. She was beaten if she resisted and lost consciousness as a result of the abuse.

“The officers committed a grave wrongdoing, a violation that is unforgivable and uncondonable and deserving of severe punishment. They have sullied the good name of the national police,” Wachyono said.

Police are also investigating the alleged rape of a Papuan women who was forced to give oral sex to officers while she was being held in custody in the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura.

Three police officers are suspected of raping the married woman on multiple occasions between November and January, while she was being held for alleged gambling.

Local media reported that she had tried to kill herself during the ordeal.

“The victim’s family have lodged a police report so we’re starting criminal charges against the officers,” Wachyono said, adding that the suspects were being “made to stand in the sun” as punishment.

“At the moment, the officers are receiving disciplinary sanction. They are being detained for 21 days, made to stand in the sun and have had their promotions delayed,” he said.

Jayapura city police chief Imam Setiawan resigned on Tuesday over the case, a rare move by a senior officer in a police force that is notorious for corruption and torture of detainees.

Indonesian security forces are frequently accused of rights violations in Papua, which has seen a low-level insurgency by poorly-armed rebels since its incorporation into Indonesia in the 1960s.

Human rights activists and the United Nations say Indonesian police regularly torture and beat suspects in custody, while extortion is rife throughout the country’s prisons.

Agence France-Presse

Read more
Labels: , , , ,

Lack of Sex Education Puts Indonesia Children at Risk: Experts

Posted by Aldie at 2:42 PM | 0 comments

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita & Shari Nijman | December 10, 2010

Jakarta. There are very serious consequences that could result from Indonesian society’s continued reluctance to acknowledge that children need to learn about sex early on at home and in schools, experts warned on Friday.

There are very serious consequences that could result
from Indonesian society’s continued reluctance to
acknowledge that children need to learn about sex early
on at home and in schools, experts warned on Friday.
(Antara Photo)
For instance, Oldri Shearli Mukuan, an activist from the HIV-Positive Indonesian Women’s Association, said that when she had her first period, her mother warned her to be careful but did not explain how or why.

“By the time I was 16, I was a heroin addict and the victim of frequent sexual abuse by my boyfriend, who was also an addict,” she said at an Atma Jaya Catholic University seminar about sexual education for teenagers.

If she had been armed with proper information about sex and drugs and their consequences, she said, she probably would have made better choices.

The problem, according to Irwandi, a psychology professor at Atma Jaya Catholic University, is there is hardly any place children or teenagers can go to receive proper information.

Ideally, he said, schools should be the most trusted and neutral institution where sex is discussed. But most education institutions either shy away from the topic or don’t provide comprehensive information.

In the early 1990s, he said, he tried to include sex education in the schools curriculum, but an official from the Ministry of Health said he could never mention the word “condom” in class.

“He said I would have to go over his dead body before I could mention the word ‘condom’ at school,” he said.

Irwandi acknowledged the Indonesian education system has changed a lot since then, but limitations still exist because schools mostly talk about chastity instead of the real concept of sex.

“Children at most Indonesian schools are overprotected,” he said.

Nia Dinata, a prominent film director and producer who spoke at the seminar, said she had problems teaching her teenage son about sex because his school only provided him information about reproductive organs.

“I once asked my son if he knew what sex was, and he said according to school, sex was gender,” she said, adding that very few schools include comprehensive information about sex in their curriculum.

Dhita Wijaya, 19, a psychology student at Atma Jaya Catholic University, said she learned about sex in her high school but mainly about abortion.

“My school arranged some sex education, but they just pointed out the risks of having an abortion. They make us afraid of having an abortion, but they don’t talk to us about how to prevent it,” she said.

To address the low awareness among Indonesian teenagers of HIV/AIDS — just 14.3 percent, according to a Central Statistics Bureau survey in 2010 — National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said the ministry intended to begin HIV/AIDS education for school students.

However, he dodged a question about whether the lessons would include condom use.

Irwandi said schools and universities should take more proactive roles in providing honest and open information about sex and reproduction, because other media would not hesitate to bombard children with information about sex, complete with more interesting graphics and audio, without considering the risks it posed.

If not from unfiltered media, children would learn from their peers, who often hardly know any better, he said.

When should children be taught? For psychology major Edward Samuel, 19, it should be sooner rather than later.

“For me, my first sex education was in junior high school, and I think that’s very, very late,” he said.

“It would be better if they started it in kindergarten or elementary school. I think it’s too late if they get it in junior high school.”

Read more
Labels: , , ,

Indonesian Teachers ‘Encouraged’ to Educate Students About Sex

Posted by Aldie at 3:19 AM | 0 comments

Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman | December 01, 2010

Jakarta. Sex education will be “integrated” into Indonesian classrooms for the first time as the nation faces up to an increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country, including a growing number of young women.

National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh, pictured
on the right in this file photo, says sex education will
be “integrated” into Indonesian classrooms for the
first time. (Antara Photo)
National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said on Wednesday that the ministry intended planning to begin HIV/AIDS education for school students, whose knowledge of the dangers remained low.

He dodged a question regarding whether the lessons would include condom use.

“We are going to encourage teachers to teach their students about HIV/AIDS and how we can prevent it,” Nuh said. “We are not going to have a new subject on this matter, but this issue will be integrated into biology classes, sports classes, religion classes and sociology classes.”

Based on a Central Statistics Bureau survey in 2010, only 14.3 percent of Indonesians aged 15-24 were knowledgeable about the disease, well below the 70 percent target needed for Indonesia to achieve its Millennium Development Goals.

Nuh said that the ministry also planned to train teachers so they each had comprehensive knowledge about AIDS.

“We are planning to have training of trainers for teachers so that this is going to run effectively,” he said.

The Ministry of National Education is this year responsible for raising AIDS awareness. It has about 200 campaigns in place.

In October, Nuh launched a sex education initiative for blind and deaf children but he has previously been criticized for rejecting a proposal to include sex education in the curriculum of state schools.

In 1989, women accounted for just 2.5 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the country, according to the National Commission on AIDS (KPAN). By 2009, however, they made up 25.5 percent of cases. And this number is likely to increase further as gender-based violence continues to rise.

The commission predicts HIV prevalence among Indonesians aged 15 to 49 will increase to 0.37 percent in 2014 from 0.22 percent in 2008, while the number of people with HIV/AIDS will increase to 541,700 in 2014 from 371,800 in 2010.

Nafsiah Mboi, the secretary of the commission, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that the target was “too ambitious” but if the government and civil society groups worked together a 50 percent figure could be achieved by next year.

She said students should be more familiar with condoms and the use of condoms.

“Condoms shouldn’t be a taboo.”

Related Articles:

Malaysia plans sex education for six year olds

Indonesia Considers Proposal to Introduce Disaster 101 At Schools

Read more
Labels: , , , ,

Young slum dwellers dislike using condom

Posted by Aldie at 11:35 PM | 0 comments

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/22/2010 11:24 AM

The lack of information and knowledge about contraceptives has contributed to the common practice of unsafe sex among sexually active youth who live in poverty in Jakarta.

Many people who live in poverty have been said to believe that condom use decreases the experience of sexual activity.

Iqbal, 30, of Kampung Sepatan in Rorotan subdistrict, Cilincing, North Jakarta, said recently that many of the youth in the neighborhood had been in sexual relations and thought condom use could reduce a couple’s intimacy.

Kampung Sepatan is one of the urban slums in Jakarta and home to around 1,400 lower-income residents, many whose livelihood’s depend on trash picking, farming and fishing.

“Using a condom while having sex is not enjoyable,” Iqbal stated.

It was said that while young people there were aware of the dangers of practicing unsafe sex, there was a social propensity among them that championed unsafe sex as a way to cement a relationship.

“My ex-girlfriend insisted that we did not use condoms to hold me responsible if she became preg-nant,” Iqbal’s friend told the The Jakarta Post on condition of anonymity, adding that using condoms in a relationship also symbolized a lack of trust.

Sex education among the youth in the neighborhood appears to lack.

Reportedly many NGOs visiting the area are focused on providing young residents with more assistance with food, clothing and vocational training.

“No NGOs that have visited have provided sex education,” Adi, 20, said.

He said they received sex education from their schools in biology class, which consisted of information about their reproductive organs and function.

Similar to their counterparts in Kampung Sepatan, the young people living along Ciliwung riverbank of Bukit Duri and Kampung Pulo subdistricts, South Jakarta, also agreed that unprotected sex was a strategy to find love.

A young woman said, “I’d rather have sex without using condoms because it’s a symbol of intimacy and trust”.

Unprotected sex is a way in which a woman can ensure her boyfriend remains loyal, she said.

Zaky, 19, told the Post that they had better more informed and became aware of the dangers of unprotected sex after several NGOs recently visited their area to educate them about sex.

However, NGOs did not discuss the importance of using condoms, despite the fact that many young people there were sexually active.

“The NGOs explained the dangers of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections [STIs], but not about contraception in detail,” Zaky said.

The Lamp Science Foundation (YPI), a grassroot organization active in promoting the awareness on HIV/AIDS, confirmed that its approaches to young people in lower-income urban areas had been proactive in educating them about reproductive health, STIs and HIV/AIDS prevention.

“We highlighted condom use as one way to reduce the risk of HIV infection,” YPI secretary Srisulistyurini said.

She said that premarital and unsafe sex was prevalent among the youth in shanty areas, and that sex education was the key to curbing the rapid spread of STIs and HIV/AIDS.

The YPI suggested that communities of slum areas in Jakarta should initiate workshops on sex education by requesting NGOs such as the YPI to visit their areas.

“It needs comprehensive participation from society because many NGOs don’t have the resources to map all the slum areas in the city whose young residents need sex education,” Srisulistyurini said.

According to the health agency, 3,863 AIDS cases were reported in 2009, with women and young people being the most prone to infection. (tsy)

Sex education among the youth in the neighborhood appears to lack.

Read more
Labels: , , , , ,

Myth of the virginal membrane still widespread

Posted by Aldie at 10:59 AM | 0 comments

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 3 April 2010 - 9:00am, by Zainab Hammoud

More than half of all girls and women do not bleed when they lose their virginity. However, this loss of blood is still important in cultures where women are supposed to preserve their virginity until marriage. So women have found ways of meeting their environment's expectations.





Karima, a Dutch/Moroccan woman in her early twenties, has a secret: she had hymenoplasty, or hymen reconstruction surgery, shortly before her marriage. The hymen is the membrane which encloses the vaginal area.

"In my culture you cannot tell your parents or your family that you were not a virgin when you married. My mother would not survive it," she says. She only allows herself to be interviewed with a distorted face and voice so that she cannot be recognised.

Gynaecologist Ineke van Seumeren has doubts about the procedure. "I have always found it a problem to do something that really isn't necessary. It is not a disease." A few years ago she thought up a different solution. She wants to inform people that the correlation between an intact hymen and virginity is a myth.

Read more
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Five-day limit for post-sex pill

Posted by Aldie at 12:50 PM | 0 comments

The contraceptive is available only on prescription

A recently licensed type of emergency contraception may offer women protection from pregnancy even when taken five days after sex.

Scottish researchers found that ulipristal acetate worked well after the three-day limit of the most commonly used drug, levonorgestrel.

At present ulipristal - unlike levonorgestrel - is only available with a prescription.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service welcomed the study.

Emergency contraception uses hormones to either prevent the release of an egg by the ovary in the hours after sex, or stop it implanting into the the womb.

Levonorgestrel is available from pharmacies, either with a prescription, or sold directly to over-16s.

A study by specialists working for NHS Lothian tested the effectiveness of levonorgestrel and ulipristal (which was licensed for use last year) using a sample of more than 1,600 women from the UK, Ireland and the USA.

A total of 2.6% of the levonorgestrel group became pregnant despite taking the drug, compared with 1.8% in the ulipristal group.

In a much smaller group of women who received emergency contraception more than three days after sex, there were no pregnancies among women who had taken ulipristal compared with three pregnancies among those taking levonorgestrel.

The levels of side effects were roughly the same in both two drugs.

'Time window'

However, researchers said that the newer drug cannot be sold 'over-the-counter' at pharmacies because it did not yet have the established safety record of levonorgestrel.

Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service described the new type of drug as "exciting news".

She said: "It offers a longer time window for use than the traditional, emergency contraception pill.

"Different hormones are involved to the ones traditionally used in contraception, so it may be that these will prove to have other contraceptive uses in future.

"However, accessibility is key to the uptake of any time-sensitive medication and since this pill is not currently available over-the-counter and is significantly more expensive to buy than the traditional 'morning after pill', it may be that many women who could benefit from it are not able to access it."


Read more
Labels: , ,