This week, Isabelle Ameganvi, the female leader of “Let’s Save Togo,” and a lawyer in her own right, stood before thousands of women and called on them to…withhold sex in order to get the men of Togo to force the resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe. That’s an odd strategy if you consider that domestic violence is common in this small African country. There are no laws against marital rape and, according to Africa for Women’s Rights organization, domestic violence is common, “Togolese women were victims of targeted political violence during the last elections. An international fact-finding mission of the United Nations mandated to establish responsibility for violations committed during the presidential election of May 2005, found that torture, rape and other sexual violence had been perpetrated against Togolese women.”
Withholding sex in order to secure a political agenda sends the wrong message to the youth in Togo. Using their minds, not their bodies to bring about reform inspires change. Women of Togo have been ravaged and their bodies tortured as a way to control them. They need to take their power back and focusing on sex and their body only perpetuates their weakness. In her speech, Ameganvi referred to Liberia’s sex strike by the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace in 2003. Peace was attained, but the strike was only a small part of their efforts. They mobilized.
According to Slate.com, “They also staged sit-ins and mass demonstrations, which were arguably far more effective than the sex strike. Leymah Gbowee, the leader of the peace group, wrote in her memoir that the months-long sex strike had little or no practical effect, but it was extremely valuable in getting us media attention. Until today, nearly 10 years later, whenever I talk about the Mass Action, “What about the sex strike?” is the first question everyone asks.”
So, perhaps the sex strike is a way to bring about national attention and it seems to be working. The story is going viral, but the story is about sex and women, not the violence that women are subjected to in Togo. Nothing can take the place of women mobilized for a cause. According to GeoHive.com, females outnumber men by a small percentage in Togo, but it’s enough. Women have just over 11% of Togo’s seats in Parliament. That’s not far from the United States’ percentage of women in the U.S. Congress.
To bring about change, the Togolese women need to appeal to reason and individual hearts. Perhaps Maya Angelou says it best, “The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”