... the other Black experience
"No peace = No sex" - Kenyan women go on a sex strike
Women's activist groups in Kenya have slapped their partners with a week-long sex ban in protest over the infighting plaguing the national unity government.
Here's some text swiped from Jezzy.
Will a week-long, sex strike among Kenyan women forestall bloodshed in the East African country?
Following Liberia's example, Kenya's Women's Development Organization has called for women to go on sex strike in protest of government unrest, hoping to forestall the bloodshed that wracked the country after last year's elections. Recently bickering has threatened the fragile coalition that formed only after 1,000 people were killed in power struggles. A statement, quoted by the AP, declares,
"The women of this country will not ... allow its political leadership to lead it back onto a slippery journey to ... violence and absolute chaos." They hope the week-long strike will result in talks between warring factions.
Says WDO's chairwoman, "We have looked at all issues which can bring people to talk and we have seen that sex is the answer...It does not know tribe, it does not have a (political) party and it happens in the lowest households." Adds Patricia Nyaundi, executive director of the Federation of Women Lawyers (Fida), to VOA, "Great decisions are made during pillow talk, so we are asking the two ladies at that intimate moment to ask their husbands: 'Darling can you do something for Kenya?'" Eleven women's groups are participating in the strike, which adds up to several thousand women. The group says they are paying prostitutes to strike, too. The movement got a boost when the Prime Minister's wife, Ida Odinga, joined the strike yesterday, saying, according to UPI, "If some women have decided, we have all decided."
Not shockingly, in a country in which polygamy is still legal, the strike's meeting with resistance. According to the BBC, "Our correspondent says some would argue that Kenyan men cannot even abstain for two days. Kenyan legislator David Musila told VOA:
"It is a shame. It is a shame that these women can make such a statement. First of all, in my view, it is un-African, and these are some of the things in Africa we don't talk openly about, sex in front of children, and so on. And therefore, I think they are misguided and in any case, who is going to supervise and see that the boycott is implemented? It is just rubbish."
The morality argument is not limited to men; says the vice chairwoman of Maendeleo ya Wanawake, Rahab Muiu "As the largest women's organization in the country, we strongly believe in family values and cannot be associated with such foul utterances which can only break families,"
We imagine plenty of feminists could find the strike problematic for very different reasons. What's one thing in Lysistrata is quite another in 2009 - but then, so is polygamy and disenfranchisement. As Anna put it to me, "If it works, well, that's good. But it makes me sad for mankind - with an emphasis on man."
Here's some text swiped from Jezzy.
Will a week-long, sex strike among Kenyan women forestall bloodshed in the East African country?
Following Liberia's example, Kenya's Women's Development Organization has called for women to go on sex strike in protest of government unrest, hoping to forestall the bloodshed that wracked the country after last year's elections. Recently bickering has threatened the fragile coalition that formed only after 1,000 people were killed in power struggles. A statement, quoted by the AP, declares,
"The women of this country will not ... allow its political leadership to lead it back onto a slippery journey to ... violence and absolute chaos." They hope the week-long strike will result in talks between warring factions.
Says WDO's chairwoman, "We have looked at all issues which can bring people to talk and we have seen that sex is the answer...It does not know tribe, it does not have a (political) party and it happens in the lowest households." Adds Patricia Nyaundi, executive director of the Federation of Women Lawyers (Fida), to VOA, "Great decisions are made during pillow talk, so we are asking the two ladies at that intimate moment to ask their husbands: 'Darling can you do something for Kenya?'" Eleven women's groups are participating in the strike, which adds up to several thousand women. The group says they are paying prostitutes to strike, too. The movement got a boost when the Prime Minister's wife, Ida Odinga, joined the strike yesterday, saying, according to UPI, "If some women have decided, we have all decided."
Not shockingly, in a country in which polygamy is still legal, the strike's meeting with resistance. According to the BBC, "Our correspondent says some would argue that Kenyan men cannot even abstain for two days. Kenyan legislator David Musila told VOA:
"It is a shame. It is a shame that these women can make such a statement. First of all, in my view, it is un-African, and these are some of the things in Africa we don't talk openly about, sex in front of children, and so on. And therefore, I think they are misguided and in any case, who is going to supervise and see that the boycott is implemented? It is just rubbish."
The morality argument is not limited to men; says the vice chairwoman of Maendeleo ya Wanawake, Rahab Muiu "As the largest women's organization in the country, we strongly believe in family values and cannot be associated with such foul utterances which can only break families,"
We imagine plenty of feminists could find the strike problematic for very different reasons. What's one thing in Lysistrata is quite another in 2009 - but then, so is polygamy and disenfranchisement. As Anna put it to me, "If it works, well, that's good. But it makes me sad for mankind - with an emphasis on man."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on -
m'eh... civil unrest and violence is worse on all levels then guessing that white ppl will think that black men need sex. the ppl who're making african men look bad are the ppl saying that abstaining from sex as a political statement is "un-African" or "unfair" -- a woman's body is her own and is not the property of a husband or boyfriend or any other person's... so she can choose to do whatever the heck she wants w/ her own body.
the protest serves to humanize and make the women in the situation visible, because they are the major group of people that'll be at risk (rape/murder) and most adversely effected (husbands and children dying/starving) if there's civil war or civil unrest.
also, white people and non-africans or africans who desire to exploit ppl they feel the world doesn't give a shit about will do it regardless of the actual "merits" or "wrongs" of the people they want to screw over.
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Permalink Reply by foxtrot oscar on -
A new development of sorts... *rolls eyes*
Kenyan sues over sex ban 'stress'
A Kenyan man has sued activists who urged women to deny their partners sex for a week as a protest against the country's political impasse.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8040813.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/05/09/kenya.sex.lawsuit/index....
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Permalink Reply by Golem_3 on -
Thats whats up.
I'm still trippin off the fact that prostitutes have been given money to NOT have sex.
lol
The issue isn't about perception (because, really, that diverts from the core situation).
Perception is irrelevant when power is invloved.
If someone has guns, and you have nada, they're taking your shit.
It doesn't matter if you wanna look all good for CNN and the BBC.
I'm all for it. I just hope that those women don't get hurt.
There's power in numbers.
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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on
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Bill Moyers, Pray the Devil back to Hell, Liberian women "cajoling" men into peace -- one of their methods = NO SEX NO PEACE!
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06192009/watch.html
honestly there's so much going on re strategies for social change that americans and westerners need to learn from our indigenous counterparts--where the change means life rather than death.
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