Kyaw Ye Lynn
02 June 2020•Update: 02 June 2020
YANGON, Myanmar
A Myanmar doctor Tuesday was found guilty of insulting religion for his criticism of conservative monks over a proposal to include sex education in the school syllabus.
A 31-year-old physician, Kyaw Win Thant was arrested in Myanmar’s central town of Meikhtila on May 21 after he shared several posts on Facebook criticizing Buddhist monks who oppose the plan to teach sex education in schools.
Then he was sent to the city of Mandalay from Meikhtila for security reasons.
A court in Mandalay ordered prison term for Win Thant, who is himself a Buddhist, on charges of insulting Buddhist religion.
“He was given a one year and nine months jail imprisonment today,” said Ko Ko Aung, an official from Religious Affairs Office in Meikhtila.
Win Thant apologized senior monks in the town on May 21 before he was charged under section 294 and 295 of the country’s Penal Code that prohibits insulting a person’s religion and carries a jail sentence up to two years.
In one of his Facebook posts, he said monks are strong and healthy, but just live off others without working.
“Buddhist monks who complain about the curriculum have no idea about sex education, but do all the same things that laypeople do such as betting and watching porn movies,” he wrote on Facebook on May 19.
Nationalists including Buddhist monks objected to a government plan to introduce sex education to the school syllabus for the upcoming academic year that is scheduled to start on July 15.
The issue recently went viral on Facebook, the most popular social media platform in Myanmar, becoming a hot debate among users.
The Education Ministry recently announced that it has been reviewing the sex education curriculum following the complaints.
