Sex strike

A sex strike is a strike, a method of non-violent resistance in which one or multiple persons refrain from sex with their partner(s) to achieve certain goals. It's a form of temporary sexual abstinence. Sex strikes have been used to protest many issues, from water resources to employment equity.

Ancient Greece

The most famous example of a sex strike in the arts is the Greek playwright Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata, an anti-war comedy. The female characters in the play, led by the eponymous Lysistrata, withhold sex from their husbands as part of their strategy to secure peace and end the Peloponnesian War.

Belgium

In February 2011 a sex strike was suggested by Marleen Temmerman to break the deadlock in the 2010 Belgian government formation crisis, which centred around divisions between the Flemish, Dutch-speaking population and French-speaking Walloons.

Colombia

In October 1997, the chief of the Military of Colombia, General Mañuel Bonnet publicly called for a sex strike among the wives and girlfriends of the Colombian left-wing guerrillas, drug traffickers, and paramilitaries as part of a strategy — along with diplomacy — to achieve a cease fire. Also the mayor of Bogota, Antanas Mockus, declared the capital a women-only zone for one night, suggesting men to stay at home to reflect on violence. The guerrillas ridiculed the initiatives, pointing at the fact that there were more than 2,000 women in their army. In the end the cease fire was achieved, but lasted only a short time.

In September 2006 dozens of wives and girlfriends of gang members from Pereira, Colombia, started a sex strike called La huelga de las piernas cruzadas ("the strike of crossed legs") to curb gang violence, in response to 480 deaths due to gang violence in that coffee region. According to spokeswoman Jennifer Bayer, the specific target of the strike was to force gang members to turn in their weapons in compliance with the law. According to them, many gang members were involved in violent crime for status and sexual attractiveness, and the strike sent the message that refusing to turn in the guns was not sexy. In 2010 the city's murder rate saw the steepest decline in Colombia, down by 26.5%.

Kenya

In April 2009, a group of Kenyan women organised a week-long sex strike aimed at politicians, encouraging the wives of the president and prime minister to join in too, and offering to pay prostitutes for lost earnings if they joined in.

Liberia

In 2003, Leymah Gbowee and the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace organized nonviolence protests that included a sex strike. As a result, the women were able to achieve peace in Liberia after a 14-year civil war and helped bring to power the country's first female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Philippines

During the summer of 2011, women in rural Mindanao imposed a several week long sex strike in an attempt to end fighting between their two villages.