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submitted 2 weeks ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/world@lemmy.world

cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/c/lgbtq_plus/p/1184160/why-niger-explicitly-criminalising-asexuality-is-significant-to-everyone-regardless-of-ident

To understand Nigers asexuality criminalisation, we should see this law as part of a bigger – and growing – global trend among conservatives about 'traditional families'

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[-] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 86 points 2 weeks ago

What, are they going to make it illegal to not have sex then? What?

[-] SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org 42 points 2 weeks ago

Nigerian incels' last hope.

[-] Taldan@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago

Nigerien*

Nigerian would be someone from Nigeria

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 2 weeks ago

Niger being a different, fully islamic country, mostly in the Sahara instead of on the lush coast. Since a lot of people don't know the difference

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[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 13 points 2 weeks ago

I would not put it past the nutjobs (of any country) to pass a law that requires that each and every person* ensures their own replacement if not also surplus to that effect to make up for those that can't. Or won't.

* of course, by that point they might have created propaganda if not also a law about who or what counts as a person, because they only want more of those, not anyone who might be classified as less than one.

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[-] FluorideMind@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

It's more about not being able to be open about it.

[-] TeaWithDani@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Being outwardly celibate is a way lots of different people resist. That is now removed.

You can expect to be used against unmarried women, forcing them to get married. Likely also bound to stigmatize getting married at even a mildly later date than one might have.

It removes any protections LGBTQ folks may have had by staying "single" publicly.

Will likely also result in couples being unable to have children being otherwise persecuted.

[-] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 68 points 2 weeks ago

Somehow that's even more stupid than criminalizing homosexuality.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 48 points 2 weeks ago

What does that even mean, in practice? Mandatory government sex?

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 33 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It's a proxy for "why aren't you married and having kids?" Niger usually has one of the highest fertility rates per woman, which is a troubling way to measure that.

Source: lived there for years. People take "be fruitful and multiply" very literally.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Neat, a first-hand source! What else should we know about Niger, beyond the statistics?

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 20 points 2 weeks ago
[-] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

This checks out.

[-] Padit@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago

How do you guys pronounce Niger? Does it sound French, or is there an other pronounciation to it?

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

In Niger, everyone says "nee-zhair." That's how I've always said it. There's a Niger state in Nigeria, and that one always pronounced "nay-jer"

FWIW, in Nigeria, shorthand for "Nigerian" is Naija, pronounced "nay-ja" as one would expect.

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[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 2 weeks ago

The article links to an irrelevant source. What's the actual law?

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[-] Corvidae@lemmy.world 43 points 2 weeks ago

This is also about censorship. Can't discuss or teach about these things, since they're "criminal". Engineering sexual ignorance.

[-] fireweed@lemmy.world 37 points 2 weeks ago

It's becoming increasing obvious how desperate the elites are getting, now that every woman isn't churning out 5+ children for the meat grinder.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

This is Niger, where the mean women has like 7, meaning many have more. IIRC it's the highest rate in the world. Niger is also one of the poorest countries, so there's no real reason they'd want more.

[-] daychilde@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

Okay, but how many do the nice women have?

(sorry, couldn't resist. The article is horrifying, so i'm escaping into humour)

[-] fireweed@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Mild conspiracy alert time, but:

Increased diplomatic ties with Russia + Russia is desperate for more soldiers = keep churning out those future military contractors

Also much of that region of Africa (Niger included) is highly unstable; there's always the possibility of more localized geopolitical concerns promoting a population arms race.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Going more by Occam's razor, and a bit of Hanlon's: They copy-pasted every queer term they could find, and dumped it into the gay-bad bill. The junta may or may not have known what asexual even is.

It's an islamic country, which also has evangelical missionary influence, and positions itself as anti-Western (when tolerance is highly associated with the West), so that's a great way to win political points. Now, poorly written laws like that would be a problem... if they had rule of law and working courts in the first place, which they don't.

[-] fireweed@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

This is also highly likely. Anti-LGBTQIA+ folks aren't exactly known for being well-versed in their queer terminology, and I can totally see the "A" (hell, probably the "I" too) getting swept up in general anti-queer measures, even when it's nonsensical.

[-] gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Isn't Africa rather thinly populated in general, or do i remember that wrong?

Edit: just checked, Niger has 23 people/km², while germany has 230 pp/km².

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah, Niger is desert, basically. There's a bit of sahel at one end, and of course oases, but it's not a populous place, because of course it isn't.

1/10 of German density is actually impressive as hell, and probably why they're poor even by African standards. Australia might be a better geographic parallel, at 3.7.

If you look at Nigeria, the story is different, and some of the small West African states are going to be even more crowded. Africa as a whole is probably comparable to the next (edit: major) continent. You're averaging over a lot of very different places, once you get to that scale.

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[-] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 2 weeks ago

In June 2026, the nation of Niger became the first nation in the world ++to criminalise asexuality++, as part of a wider crackdown on the LGBTQIA+ community. The country, currently run by a military junta, broadened its anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, increasing the criminalisation of LGBTQIA+ ‘practices’ to include anyone who ‘attempts to’ participate.

The ILGA database says the newly passed laws, Article 25 and 390, are already having life-threatening implications on LGBTQIA+ people in Niger.

Ace people in Niger, alongside people of all LGBTQIA+ identities, can now face 5-10 years in prison and fines worth up to £130K. 

The change was significant as it makes Niger the first country to name the asexual community in its law books. However, it begs the question: how does one ban an asexual “practice”, other than to punish people who are not married and those who don’t have babies? To understand, we should see this law as part of a bigger – and growing – global trend among conservatives.

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Niger’s crackdown on asexual “practices” is not isolated to the West African nation; it’s part of a greater trend of anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric, enforced monogamy and anti-abortion movements worldwide.

In ++2026++, Niger (alongside Burkina Faso and Mali) has strengthened diplomatic ties with Russia, while their military juntas are at war with insurgent groups. This move comes at a time when Russia instituted a ban on “++propaganda++” that promotes childfree lifestyles. But this rhetoric is not isolated to countries we tend to associate with deep-rooted conservative laws.

Meanwhile, conservatives in the U.S. have been shaming childfree women as ++“childless cat ladies”.++ This builds on previous campaigns from the religious right in America, which stated the Respect for Marriage Act ++would lead to asexual marriages++, which they believed would lead to a marriage “inferno”. Groups like the Heritage Foundation equated asexual marriages to “selfishness”. 

Zoom out a little, and it's easy to see the hypocrisy of conservative religious people demonising asexuality, considering how much abstinence was preached to me growing up in a conservatively religious home. 

Asexuality stands in direct contrast to the religious right’s shaming of ‘childfree’ people, which also often ignores other routes to having children like adoption, and ++family models that show you can be asexual and a parent++. Instead, the decreasing birth rate has been a talking point of right-wing politics for years. 

And yet, conservatives do not care to address the many concerns related to raising a child – such as rising costs of childcare, affordable housing, and lack of reproductive justice. They only seem to care about making everyone become a parent. 

[...]

[-] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 15 points 2 weeks ago

The fuck... ?

Didn't have that one on my bingo card.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 9 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 13 points 2 weeks ago
[-] forkDestroyer@infosec.pub 8 points 2 weeks ago

leans in

What's the punishment?

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 weeks ago

The not fuck is the crime.

[-] Malica@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago

You can be ace and have sex, have children...

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

You just can't enjoy the sex, at least if you're at the deeper ends of the spectrum.

[-] Malica@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago

Pretty much :(

[-] chmod755@feddit.org 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That's crazy man. What if someone is a priest or something like that?

[-] cloudshouter@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

Religious exemptions are always popular with people who write these kinds of laws.

[-] dismay3915@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Time to go to Niger to get my subsided sex coupon then.

[-] ConstantPain@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Traditional family = more people to be exploited by religion and capitalists.

[-] notSys@lemmy.cafe 4 points 2 weeks ago

I can understand why would someone want to criminalize homisexuality or transexuality. I think those reasons are utterly stupid and deeply immoral, but at least I can see the reasoning behind them. But asexuality?

[-] Bob@feddit.org 8 points 2 weeks ago

Homosexuals and asexuals are functionally the same in that they don't want to engage in reproductive sex. This creates a smaller tax base and must therefore be discouraged.

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[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

We're all making fun of Nige~~l~~r

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this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2026
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