Go on a SEX STRIKE
Sometimes there is nothing for it but to show you mean business. If you want to bring about change, or at least persuade your partner to see your point of view, you may just have to hit them where it hurts.
Sex strikes have been used around the world:
- In Colombia: to protest against the violent drug wars.
- In Poland: to fight for legal abortion
- In Amsterdam: by sex workers to protest against harassment.
...ad get things done
Take Action
Is there an issue you care really passionately about? Write to the partners of those who are causing the problem urging them to go on a sex strike. Get as much publicity as you can for your campaign.
Is there is something your own partner is doing that is causing harm to others or to the planet? Why not start your own sex strike to persuade him or her to desist?
Find Out More
Birsel Lemke won a Right Livelihood Award for her campaign for justice. Find out more from: www.rightlivelihood.org/recip/lemke.htm
The Global Women's Strike is held on 8 March each year to highlight how much of the world's work is done by women, and how much difference it makes when their contribution is withdrawn: www.globalwomenstrike.net
Sex strike in Sudan:
Samira Ahmed, a university professor, launched a sex strike in 2002 to try to end 19 years of civil war. She called it 'alHair', Arabic for 'women sexually abandoning their men'. The action (or rather the inaction) began with 20 women from the Lou and Jekany tribes, who were most involved in the fighting.
Stripping off against strip mining in Turkey:
Birsel Lemke campaigned against a proposal to develop highly poisonous cyanide-based gold mining in sites across Turkey. Inhabitants of one village near the site of a proposed mine ran naked, bearing signs with the slogan, "Before Eurogold strips us, we'll strip". The women refused to have sex with their husbands until the men had expelled the gold mining company.
No Water, No Sex
In 2001, a group of women in the village of Sirt in Turkey banned their husbands from their bedrooms in an effort to get a mains water supply to their village. The 27-year old water system had broken down, and the women were having to collect water from a fountain and carry it home over long distances.
The strategy had an immediate effect. The men petitioned the authorities to repair the water system, and offered their labour free. The local authority provided pipes to bring a nearby water source to the village. The women continued their protest until water actually started gushing out of the taps.
Islam requires people to bathe after sex, so there was a connection between the method of protest and what was being fought for.
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Here's an idea to think about. Go on a sex strike and change the world. You can do it. Or you can encourage someone else to.
