WUNRN
Please See 4 Parts of This WUNRN
Release.
TOGO - WOMEN CALL FOR SEX STRIKE FOR
POLITICAL PRESSURE
Demonstrators against electoral reforms call sex strike to pressure men to challenge the president's growing power
Sunday
26 August 2012
The
female wing of a civil rights group is urging women in Togo to stage a week-long sex
strike to demand the resignation of the country's president. Women are being
asked to withhold sex from their husbands or partners from Monday, said
Isabelle Ameganvi, leader of the women's wing of Let's Save Togo. She said the
strike will put pressure on Togo's men to take action against President Faure
Gnassingbe.
Ameganvi, a
lawyer, said her group is following the example of Liberia's women, who used a
sex strike in 2003 to campaign for peace. "We have many means to oblige
men to understand what women want in Togo," she said.
The strike
was announced on Saturday at a rally of several thousand people in the capital
city, Lome. The demonstration was organised by a coalition that is protesting
against recent electoral reforms which, they say, will make it easier for
Gnassingbe to win re-election in October.
Gnassingbe
came to power in 2005, following the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema,
who ruled the West African country for 38 years. The president has not
commented on the proposed sex strike. Earlier this month, two anti-Gnassingbe
protests were dispersed by police using tear gas and more than 100 people were
arrested.
At
Saturday's rally, which ended peacefully, Jean-Pierre Fabre, leader of the
National Alliance for Change opposition party, called for Gnassingbe's
resignation. Other opposition leaders called for civil disobedience.
But it is
the sex strike that has people talking in this country of 7 million people.
"It's a
good thing for us women to observe this sex strike as long as our children are
in jail now," said Abla Tamekloe. "I believe that by observing this,
we will get them released. For me, it's like fasting, and unless you fast, you
will not get what you want from God."
When asked
if her husband would agree, Tamekloe said: "It is easy for me to observe
it. I am used to it, but I am not sure my husband will accept. But I have to
explain to him."
Another
Togolese woman said she supports the strike, but she does not know if she can
carry it out for a full week.
"I do
agree that we women have to observe this sex strike but I know my husband will
not let me complete it. He may agree at first, but as far as I know him, he
will change overnight," Judith Agbetoglo said.
Although the
proposed strike seemed to please many women, some men, including heads of
opposition parties and human rights groups in the anti-Gnassingbe coalition,
did not believe it would be a success.
"One
week sex strike is too much," said Fabre of the National Alliance for
Change, who suggested a shorter period, amid laughter from the crowd.
"Let's go for only two days."
Others were
skeptical of Isabelle Ameganvi's call.
"It is easy for her to say because she is not married herself. She does not live with a man at home," said Ekoue Blame, a Togolese journalist. "Does she think women who live with their husband will be able to observe that? By the way, who controls what couples do behind closed doors?" ____________________________________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_of_Liberia_Mass_Action_for_Peace
Women of
Liberia Mass Action for Peace is a peace
movement started by women in Liberia, Africa that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003.
Organized by social worker Leymah Gbowee, the movement started with thousands
local women praying and singing in a fish market
daily for months.[1]
Thousands of women mobilized their efforts, staged silent nonviolence
protests that included a sex strike and the threat of a curse.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata
Lysistrata is one of the few surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace — a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society.
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WUNRN
Colombia
Gang Wives Call Sex Strike Against Crime
12
Sep 2006
Source:
Reuters
BOGOTA,
Colombia, Sept 12 (Reuters)
Fretting
over crime and violence, girlfriends and wives of gang members in the Colombian
city of Pereira have called a ban on sex to persuade their menfolk to give up
the gun.
After
meeting with the mayor's office to discuss a disarmament program, a group of
women decided to deny their partners their conjugal rights and recorded a song
for local radio to urge others to follow their example.
"We
met with the wives and girlfriends of gang members and they were worried some
were not handing over their guns and that is where they came up with the idea
of a vigil or a sex strike," mayor's office representative Julio Cesar
Gomez said.
"The
message they are giving them is disarm or if not then they will decide how,
when, where and at what time," he told Reuters by telephone.
Gomez
said the city, in Colombia's coffee-growing region, reported 480 killings last
year.
Crime
and violence have dropped in Colombia since 2002 when President Alvaro Uribe
was first elected promising to crackdown on left-wing rebels fighting a
four-decade insurgency and the illegal militia groups who formed to counter
them.
But
cocaine-trafficking gangs and armed groups still roam parts of Colombia and
murder and kidnappings remain a problem despite the fall in crime statistics.
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