The fact that young journalists working with young editors could publish a distorted version of a sex strike can only mean that none of them had heard or read of the concept of a sex strike or where it had been practised.
A sex strike can be broadly defined as a method of non-violent resistance in which one or multiple persons refrain from sex with their partner(s) to achieve certain goals. It is a form of temporary sexual abstinence. Sex strikes have been used to protest many issues from water resources to employment equity.
In the year 2011 alone, several sex strikes have been undertaken with great success, for example; Marleen Temmermann, a Belgian politician and member of Senate called for a sex strike to break the deadlock in the formation of the Belgian government. She called on the spouses of Belgian politicians to withhold sex until they formed a government.
In June 2011, in the small Columbian town of Barbacoas, women went on a sex strike demanding the construction of a tarred road for the town of 40 000 inhabitants who previously could only access the rest of the country through a treacherous mountain road. The strike ended when army engineers began construction on the road in late August.
The latest Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.
Of interest to this debate is the work of Leymah Gbowee, in which she encouraged a sex strike in Liberia aimed at ending the 14-year-old civil war. Gbowee chronicles her story in her new biography Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War.
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Most feminists around the world agree that sex strikes are possibly the most effective tools in many democratic struggles. While I expected a challenge to the efficacy of a sex strike, what was surprising was the level of ignorance on the subject, particularly from young people given the fact that in the majority of the recent “revolutions” that have taken place from the so-called Arab-Spring to the electoral changes in Zambia was through the youth that have mobilised people through the social media. A simple Google search on sex strike gives one numerous examples on where and how this strategy had been used.
The second surprise for me were the nature of comments from women given that for time immemorial in their relationships with men, women have used sex as either punishment or reward. Even Bill Clinton in his biography admits to getting the couch treatment during the Monica Lewinsky drama. The No Vote No Sex Campaign therefore should at the very least be understood by every sexually active female.
The legitimate question could be on whether women are sufficiently angry and committed to democratic change or like the risks we have taken before with unprotected sex, will we continue to allow irresponsible men who refuse to take action to effect change? The question that remains is whether we, as women, will choose sex over the vote?
BY PRISCILLA MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA
Priscila Misihairabwi-Mushonga is an MP and a Zimbabwean Feminist.
