Maguindanao 'sex strike' puts clan war to bed

Women in a Maguindanao village successfully held a “sex strike," putting an end to the “rido" or clan feuds in their area.

According to a Monday report on GMA News TV’s “State of the Nation" and “Saksi," wives in the village of Dado in Maguindanao took it upon themselves to put an end to the warring in their village by threatening to withhold sex if their husbands went on with their warring.

“Sige, punta ka diyan. Ikaw bahala, hindi ka makakauwi sa bahay, hindi kita tatanggapin," said Hasna Kandatu, a resident of the village.

A week after they first dangled the threat of a “sex strike" or “tigil pagtatalik," peace started to reign in the village—the farm to market road reopened, putting an end to the village’s dependence on rations.

The idea came from a group of women engaged in a sewing business; because of the constant feuding, they would be unable to transport their products along the village road.

The threat, the report said, did not go unnoticed by the village’s men. Lengs Kupong, one of the village leaders and Hasna Kandatu’s wife, voiced out his concern that if the “rido" continues, couples may end up separating.

“Basta makagawa ka ng masama… ganito, maghihiwalay," he said in the report.

Despite the Koran’s provisions on a woman’s responsibility to a man, Imam Council of the Philippines Chairman Imam Alim Basher said that there was nothing wrong with the village women’s “strike."

“[Walang masama sa ginawa nila] kasi talagang… they were asking for maganda kabuhayan na tahimik at yun din ang hinahanap ng Islam," he said.

The first recorded “sex strike" is detailed in Lysistrata, a play written by Aristophanes which was first performed in classical Athens in 411 BC.

Lysistrata is comedy about one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War by persuading the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands and lovers to force a negotiated peace. —Bea Cupin/MRT, GMA News