Zambia Crackdown Aims to Prevent Citizens from Toying with Sex Dolls

Zambia considers them unnatural and illegal

Zambia Sex doll

Although no shops sell them openly in Zambia, ‘smart sex dolls’ are available for purchase from online international suppliers. Police are still investigating reports of the sex dolls being imported to Zambia from Asia.

Zambia which is a conservative Christian country and where homosexuality is illegal announced a crackdown on the sale of sex toys last month. The government has termed the ‘dolls’ as very ‘unnatural and immoral’ and has threatened to slap offenders with a weighty prison term.

The announcement has drawn a lot attention both in the social media as well as news stations, with the topic being a hot debate whose opinions are divided largely in the country.

Minister of National Guidance and Religious Affairs Godfridah Sumaili told AFP that Zambia being a Christian nation which is anchored in Christian principles, one of the values is morality and ethics. She committed herself to ensuring that sex dolls are not bought on the internet and imported because the selling and using of sex dolls is against the Zambian law.

“The law actually forbids anybody trading-in and using such objects and so this is why we are saying for Zambians that this is a very unnatural thing and whose use is definitely in contradiction to our natural heritage and our principles,” Sumaili added.

“God created man and woman for sexual satisfaction but for a man or woman to use a lifeless object is immoral, let’s not import foreign beliefs and experiences instead, let us just believe in what we are,” Sumaili said.

‘No toying with sex dolls’ is the headline that the state-owned Zambia Daily Mail reported to be Godfridah Sumaili’s campaign and which later ran a feature on how the campaign was constant topic of discussion in minibuses.

Zambian officials say that sex dolls fall under a constitutional law against making, owning, importing, selling or displaying “obscene matters or things” which is punishable with a maximum jail term of 5 years.

On the other hand, the Patriots for Economic Progress (PEP) which is a fringe liberal party in Zambia argued that the government’s perception towards the sex dolls clearly shows it’s rising authoritarian tendencies under President Edgar Lungu.

“The argument that the Bible does not allow the use of any objects is wrong,” said PEP party Chief Sean Tembo.

“The same Bible encourages free will and it will be wrong to send someone to prison for choosing to use sex dolls. Some men have low self-esteem and cannot propose love.”

Tembo said that there is no law that bans the importation or use of sex dolls and there is no law that criminalizes masturbation. He added that the use of sex dolls will be in private, in one’s bedroom and not in a public place and men can use sex dolls which will help reduce the cases of HIV/AIDS in Zambia which has a 12.4% adult infection rate.