A new monthly magazine filled with erotic images from front cover to back has hit the news stands in Myanmar, where sex had previously been a taboo subject under military rule.
Advertisements for Nhyot, roughly translated as “Allure” have caused a storm in Myanmar, especially on social media, but its publishers say the magazine covers sex from a health perspective, aiming to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections.
“People in this country don’t know about sex education even after they have grown up,” Oo Swe, the editor-in-chief of Nhyot, told The Irrawaddy.
“In other countries in the world, it has been included in school curricula and people have known about it since they were in primary school.
“Lack of knowledge can unwittingly bring sexually transmitted diseases, which can then be infected in partners. Such problems will have an impact from the family to the national level. This is the idea behind the publication of Nhyot. Articles in the magazine are written from a clinical point of view and carefully supervised.”
The owner of a bookshop in Yangon told The Irrawaddy that the magazine has been an instant hit, especially with boys, despite it’s “Minors are prohibited” tagline.
“A lot of buyers, mostly boys, came to my shop to look for Nhyot,” he said. “The price is 3,000 kyat (107 baht).”
Articles with titles such as “Secrets of the bedroom,” “Will you be in the arms of everyone” and “What men hate about women” seem to cater for men and there is also a Q&A section that includes in-depth discussion of sexual topics.
“No censor has been applied to us but I won’t publish a magazine like Playboy because we have to pay attention to our culture,” Mr Oo Swe said.