Pinay sex strike leader named one of world's 150 fearless women
Hasna Kandatu, the Filipina who led a sex strike last year to quell fighting in Mindanao, was named as one of Newsweek magazine's 150 most fearless women of the world.
According to Newsweek's partner The Daily Beast, these women started revolutions, opened schools, and fostered a "brave new generation."
Kandatu, a seamstress from Maguindanao, was the only Filipina on the list that included United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, singers Adele and Lady Gaga, and actresses Meryl Streep and Angelina Jolie.
On its "Women of the World" special feature, the Daily Beast noted that "daily unrest in the Philippine island of Mindanao, ongoing since the early 1970s, has made business life impossible in the small village of Dano [Dado], the women couldn't sell goods at the market for fear of violence, and the main road between the towns had been closed."
"But in late 2011, Hasna Kandatu and Ainon Kamanza, two members of the United Nations-sponsored collective in the tiny town, decided to employ an ancient tactic to stop a separatist rebellion in their region: they witheld sex from their husbands until they promised to quit fighting," it said.
The sex strike strategy worked. "It took only days for sectarian struggles to quell, and the main road to be reopened," it noted.
According to a report on GMA News TV’s “State of the Nation" and “Saksi" in September last year, women in the village of Dado, Maguindanao resorted to a “sex strike" to put an end to the “rido" or clan feuds in their locality.
“Sige, punta ka diyan. Ikaw bahala, hindi ka makakauwi sa bahay, hindi kita tatanggapin," said Kandatu, who led the sex strike.
The report noted that within days after the women first dangled the threat of a “sex strike" or “tigil pagtatalik," peace started to prevail in the village.
The farm-to-market road was reopened, ending the village’s dependence on rations.
Lengs Kupong, husband of Kandatu, said if the “rido" continues, couples may end up separating.
“Basta makagawa ka ng masama… ganito, maghihiwalay," he said in the report.
Even though the Koran states a woman’s responsibility to a man, Imam Alim Basher said there was nothing wrong with the 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," said Basher, Chairman of the Imam Council of the Philippines.
The idea of a “sex strike" was first raised in "Lysistrata," a play written by Aristophanes, performed in classical Athens in 411 BC.
Lysistrata is comedy about a woman's mission to end The Peloponnesian War by persuading Greek women to withhold sex from their husbands and lovers until they can agree to enforce peace. — VVP, GMA News
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