Blog 1:Togolese Women Ugred To Stage Sex Strike To Press For Resignation Of Country's President

This article touched on a movement that lawyer and leader of the women's wing group Let's Save Togo, Isabelle Ameganvi, is attempting to start in the nation of Togo to force the resignation of the country's current president, Faure Gnassingbe. The President has a particular familial legacy in Togolese politics, seeing as his father ruled the nation for approximately thirty-eight years before his death, automatically making Gnassingbe his successor. Togolese women following this organization are starting a sex strike as a political tactic to force Gnassingbe's resignation. Women are simply asked to withold sex from their husbands for one week in order for the movement to be successful. This strike would be beneficial for many women whose children are incarcerated due to injustice.The idea of the strike is similar to that which was used in Liberia in 2003 as women were campaigning for peace. This strike, if successful, would cause their husbands, in a patriarchial society, to take action against the Gnassingbe administration to force his resignation. However, several Togolese women find this movement to be challenging and somewhat hypocritical. Isabelle Ameganvi, the organization's leader, actually isn't married and doesn't live with a man, which seems rather hypocritical for her to ask so many women to do something that she can not do herself. Several husbands and other political and social leaders are actually looking at the sex strike as more of a joke than a political tactic for change. Therefore, there are many skeptics that question whether or not the sex strike will be successful.

I think that the underlying theme within this strike is the limited rights of women, since they are using something as simple as intercourse with their partners as a political tool to achieve a goal in which the community strongly desires.There seems to be a lack of better choice(s) to achieve this goal, which could largely be accounted for by the overall lack of development, politically, socially, and economically, to the African continent as a whole and also the individual state of Togo, which can be examined in both the micro and macro perspectives in sociology. The limited amount of the rights of women and this overarching lack of development can largely be accounted for by the Togolese culture, norms, and values that simply undermine women and their overall role in society as keeping up with household demands, family, and the needs of their partners. This role is clear because of the use of the simple tactic of witholding sex from their husbands. While it may have somewhat of an effect of their husbands, this tactic does not necessarily expand their political or social rights.



Ketsia Masse, Women, August 31, 2012 12:40 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/togolese-women-urged-to-stage-sex-strike-to-press-for-resignation-of-countrys-president/2012/08/26/922c343c-ef9e-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_story.html