Cambodian fathers build sex huts for their nine to 13-year-old daughters

Members of the Kreung tribe believe that women can be empowered by spending the night with different members of the opposite sex

Courting rituals between lovestruck youngsters differ greatly from country to country.



In some places around the world, sex before marriage is considered a great taboo and the prospect of a teenage girl spending the night with her boyfriend remains highly unlikely.



But in one village in Cambodia, fathers go out of their way to encourage their daughters to have sex: by building them love huts.

Love shack? Attitudes towards sex in some villages in Cambodia remains extremely liberal

Members of the Kreung tribe in the northeast of the country believe that women can be empowered through spending the night with different members of the other sex.



And when a girl reaches her early teenage years, or possibly even before, the love hut becomes the place for her to meet and get to know boys before deciding on her one true love.

The tribe believes the ancient practice is the best way for girls to find their future husbands.

The Kreung people have, however, moved on from their previous tradition of using a cocktail of alcohol and a centipede as a contraceptive, and now use condoms.

When a girl reaches her early teenage years, or possibly even before, the love hut becomes the place for her to meet and get to know boys before deciding on her one true love

The love huts were filmed by a documentary crew in Cambodia

But in a country where HIV and AIDS remains prevalent, and where concerns are often raised about the exploitation of youngsters in sex trafficking cases, the idea of encouraging youngsters to have sex so openly remains surprising.



Communities in rural Cambodia continue to live close-knit existences to this day

Nang Chan, a 17-year-old girl who now lives full time in the love hut in the back garden of her parent's house, believes they offer her, and other girls like her, a sense of empowerment, though.



'The huts provide us independence and are the best way through which we can explore our true lover,' she told Techpuffs.com.



'If I find some special boyfriend and we both love each other, then I'll get intimate with him and have sex in my hut.



'But if I stop loving him and find another boy that I see more attractive, then I'll stop having sex with my previous boyfriend.'



Dr Sudeepta Varma, speaking to National Geographic said that from a western perspective, love huts might be regarded as taboo as parents are usually looked upon as 'protectors' of a woman's virginity, and not promoters of it.



According to villagers, divorce and sexual violence in the community remains non-existent, and young women only engage in relationships with those they feel comfortable with.

