this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2026
239 points (97.6% liked)

World News

58137 readers
1668 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world

Ask Historians !askhistorians@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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'

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] forkDestroyer@infosec.pub 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

leans in

What's the punishment?

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

The not fuck is the crime.

[–] dismay3915@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

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

[–] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 86 points 3 days ago (4 children)

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

[–] SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org 41 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Nigerian incels' last hope.

[–] Taldan@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Nigerien*

Nigerian would be someone from Nigeria

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 3 days 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

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] TeaWithDani@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ConstantPain@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

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

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 47 points 3 days ago (8 children)

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

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 32 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

This checks out.

[–] Padit@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

[–] faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Can you do Nigeria? It's basically the same without the ia. If not try, ni like bi in bisexual + ger like Germany.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

The ger in Nigeria is more like "jeer". Exact vowels vary a lot across the language, but Germany isn't exactly the same as Jeermany in American English or Nigerian English, and I'm pretty sure not in RP either.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I would have to go looking too. But, the article makes it clear it's an umbrella anti-gay law.

The actual answer to that question, is that they're going to just ignore the parts that don't make sense, because there's no rule of law anyway. Written laws serve as something more like campaign promises, in an authoritarian state.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] chmod755@feddit.org 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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

[–] cloudshouter@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

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

[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 68 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Somehow that's even more stupid than criminalizing homosexuality.

[–] Corvidae@lemmy.world 42 points 3 days ago

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

[–] fireweed@lemmy.world 36 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

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 19 points 3 days ago

Okay, but how many do the nice women have?

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

[–] gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

that ok, i understand. but how do you explain that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has 48 pp/km²? that one is surely no desert.

  • cameroon 39.7 pp/km²
  • Central African Republic 8.6 pp/km²
  • Gabon 10 pp/km²

these are all central africa, surely no sahara desert there.

again, germany, 230 pp/km² for comparison.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

As you can see on your map, Germany is actually really dense, not typical. Europe has had an easy few centuries, and that, alongside the UK, is the densest part of Europe. If you pick a random patch of civilisation-friendly terrain, it has a greater than 50% chance to be yellow, which is like the empty central parts of Spain.

Looking over the list on Wikipedia, Germany is number 63 out of 245. What's ahead of it is mostly island and city states, with a few other major nations in the mix.

CAR is pretty empty, and that might be down to jungle. Why the jungle would be hard to live in, once you cut down a few trees, is unclear to me as a Canadian (maybe poor soil?). Plus, there are populous jungle regions, like in SE Asia. But, there definitely is a pattern.

DRC south of it is mostly yellow, and to the south-east you hit the dense African Great Lakes region. The white patch in southern Africa is the Kalahari, another desert.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] notSys@lemmy.cafe 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] notSys@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Niger has 7 children per woman.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Simple. They want to make it illegal for women not to have sex.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 3 days 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.

Understand the LGBTQIA+ news

Every Saturday we explain the 🏳️‍🌈 headlines, help you stay on top of the latest queer content, and a different underrepresented writer shares their unique queer gaze

Try it!

No spam, no ads, unsubscribe anytime - supports queer creatives

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 3 days ago

The fuck... ?

Didn't have that one on my bingo card.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

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

[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›