Mail & Guradian Online
India teaches the Kama Sutra to combat HIV
 NEW DELHI  – Aug 07 2003 14:20

http://mg.co.za/article/2003-08-07-india-teaches-the-kama-sutra-to-combat-hiv

Officials in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal are teaching sex workers the traditional Hindu treatise on sex, Kama Sutra, in an attempt to check the spread of HIV/Aids, a report said on Thursday.

The courses are being conducted by the state government’s Aids Control Society at Sonagachi, the red light area of the state’s capital Calcutta. It is being backed by India’s Institute of Social Development (IISD), a non-governmental organisation, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

The courses are aimed at teaching the prostitutes how to use Kama Sutra techniques to help their clients derive sexual pleasure without actually engaging in sexual intercourse. IISD chief Rajyashree Choudhury said the techniques would help sex workers whose clients refuse to use condoms.

“The prostitutes have to give in or lose the customer. This increases the risk of spreading the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) among the girls if they give in and also to men when they find someone who will agree to unprotected sex,” she said.

“Since 88% of HIV/Aids cases come from unsafe sex, the various ways laid down in the Kama Sutra can be resorted to by prostitutes to help their customers achieve pleasure. The girls are quite responsive,” Choudhury said.

Last year, West Bengal reported 1 137 new HIV cases and so far this year 603 new cases have been reported.

India has about four-million HIV/Aids cases according to the United Nations Aids control organisation UNAids. – Sapa-DPA

Catholic Kama Sutra MAEV KENNEDY: BODY LANGUAGE Jun 04 2009 06:00

http://mg.co.za/article/2009-06-04-catholic-kama-sutra

The correct Roman Catholic sexual position is not, as many might imagine, missionary, infrequent and with the lights out, but “saucy, surprising and fantasy packed”.

The bleak traditional view was St Paul’s injunction to the Corinthians: “It is better to marry than to burn with passion.” However, a Polish priest who has written a best-selling sex manual dubbed the “Catholic Kama Sutra” believes it is better still to marry and burn with passion.

The first edition of the book by Father Ksawery Knotz, a Franciscan from a monastery outside Krakow, titled Seks (in very large letters) and “for married couples who love God” in rather smaller type, has sold out and is being hastily reprinted in Warsaw.

“Every act — a type of caress, a sexual position — with the goal of arousal is permitted and pleases God,” he writes. “During sexual intercourse, married couples can show their love in every way, can offer one another the most sought-after caresses. They can employ manual and oral stimulation.”

His book has the blessing of the Polish Catholic Church and follows the orthodox line in many ways: he firmly addresses only married couples and discourages the use of any form of contraception, saying it can “lead a married couple outside of Catholic culture and into a completely different lifestyle”. But within those confines, couples are urged to let rip.

“Some people, when they hear about the holiness of married sex, immediately imagine that such sex has to be deprived of joy, frivolous play, fantasy and attractive positions. They think it has to be sad like a traditional church hymn,” he writes. Calling sex a celebration of the marriage sacrament raises its dignity in an exceptional way. Such a statement shocks people who learned to look at sexuality in a bad way. It is difficult for them to understand that God is also interested in their happy sex life, and in this way gives them his gift.”

If not shocked, some readers might wonder what a celibate priest knows about the subject. Conceding that a priest writing a book about sex is seen as sensational, he insists that his experience may be second hand but is extensive.

“I talk with a lot of married couples and I listen to them, so these problems just kind of sit in my mind,” he said. “I would like for them to be happier with their sex life, and for them to understand the church’s teachings so there won’t be unnecessary tension or a sense of guilt.” He has also run a website offering sexual advice to the devout for the past year.

Warm, fulfilling discussions are ongoing about translations into Slovakian, Italian and English. The publishers are in ecstasy. — © Guardian News & Media 2009