Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A group of women have gone on a “sex strike” and are refusing to sleep with their husbands until the long-awaited construction of an important local road is complete.
The group of women, called the Piernas Cruzadas (Crossed Legs) Foundation, are going on the “sex strike” until the road linking Junin and Barbacoas in the western Colombian department of Narino is complete.
Rubi Cabezas, the leader of the foundation told local media: “We are in a fight to organise a sex strike because I don’t believe it is fair that such an important road is stopped”.
The women reportedly hope that by withdrawing sex from their husbands them men will join them in calling for the road to be finished.
Reports state five kilometres (three miles) of the 56-kilometre (35-mile) road are yet to be built and the sex strike comes after the same protest was made nine years ago to ask for the construction of the road. According to reports in 2011, a former leader of the protest said that she saw a pregnant woman die in 2008 with her baby because she was not able to arrive to the city of Pasto because of the road’s conditions.
In their first cross-legged protest, the women said they were withholding sex as many pregnant women are at risk of dying during childbirth on their way to hospital on the dangerous road which is often closed for mudslides.
The sex strike stopped after the beginning of the construction of the road but has now begun again to demand its completion.
According to the foundation, the Development Institute of Antioquia are responsible for the stretch of unbuilt road, and the group say they have not received any answers from them despite making repeated requests.
Adams Rincon, the Mayor of Barbacoas, said that the road is important for the region, adding: “We have the connection that will allow us to compete in productivity.”
According to local media, the road is allegedly being constructed by the National Army and the Development Institute of Antioquia and its budget was 40,000 million COP in 2013 (9,420,360 GBP). It is still pending completion.
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