Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - December 21, 2003
Kadyr Toktogulov
An ethnic Kyrgyz nationalist drummed up a public outcry against a new sex-education book and pressured the government into withdrawing the text before school started in September.
The book, a teacher's guide titled Healthy Way of Life, also addressed such subjects as smoking and drugs.
The author, Boris Shapiro, a physician who heads an AIDS clinic in the capital, Bishkek, saw a need for frank advice for teenagers to slow the rapid spread of AIDS in this conservative former Soviet republic - where talk of sex in families is often taboo.
Shapiro, who also has served as Kyrgyzstan's leading doctor, said the book was written over two years with input from high school students.
"We looked for people to write the book, but we couldn't find anybody who was ready to do it," Shapiro said. "Teachers were saying they didn't know AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. And doctors were saying they didn't know methods of teaching."
AIDS is spreading rapidly in this nation of 4.8 million. More than 450 people are registered as being infected with HIV - a ninefold jump in three years - but the actual number is believed to be far higher. Most HIV cases are related to drug use, and prostitution is also rising because of poor economic conditions.
After allowing for public comment on the sex-education text - during which Shapiro said he received none - about 2,000 copies were published in 2001 with part of $600,000 in funds from the government and the United Nations.
It was then that criticism came flooding in.
Akin Toktaliyev filed a lawsuit against Shapiro for $120,000 in moral damages, claiming his son had been corrupted by the text and arguing that the book did not take into account Kyrgyz culture.
"Our mentality has existed for centuries and will live for quite long. [Shapiro's] goal is to ruin our society, to spoil young people, and teach them sex," said Toktaliyev, who heads the organization To Protect the Dignity of the Kyrgyz People.
Toktaliyev had earlier gained notice by campaigning against a Russian newspaper that he accused of misspelling the word Kyrgyz.
The new text's most controversial elements are a series of cartoons displaying a man putting on a condom and a passage on masturbation.
"Can you imagine your kids being taught how to put on a condom? How would you feel?" asked Education Minister Ishengul Boljurova, who took office in mid-2002 after the text had been introduced at Kyrgyz high schools.
She said parts of the book had merits, but that the ministry had received many letters - including from top officials - prompting her to recall the book.
Many complaints came from rural areas, which are considered more conservative.
"People want to hide from the problems," said Nina Meshkova, a psychologist at a private high school in the capital. She said the book's opponents "don't see the problems Shapiro sees" with the increase in AIDS cases.
Instead of the book's being withdrawn entirely, some of the material could have been adapted to address cultural gaps between the country's ethnic Kyrgyz majority and ethnic Russian minority, Meshkova said.
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