'We cannot close our eyes': Pakistani girls get groundbreaking sex ed class

Students react while attending a lecture on preventive measures to take when sexual harassment occurs, during a class in Shadabad Girls Elementary School in Pir Mashaikh village in Johi, some 325km from Karachi. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

In a poverty-stricken village in deeply conservative rural Pakistan, Muslim girls are getting the chance to protect and defend their bodies with a controversial sex education project.

In neat rows, the Pakistani girls in white headscarves listened carefully as the teacher described the changes in their bodies. When the teacher asked what they should do if a stranger touched them, the class erupted.