Seamstresses' 'sex strike' solves village violence

Seamstresses in the southern Philippines recently hit upon a unique way to stitch up their violence-torn community — deny their husbands sex if they indulged in clan wars and family feuds. A TV report said the "sex strike" launched by the women of Dado Maguindanao, most of whom work as seamstresses to earn their families' daily bread, has succeeded in stopping their men from killing each other in the frequent brawls and "wars". "Okay, if you go [to fight a clan war], you won't be able to return to this house. I won't welcome you back," Hasna Kandatu, leader of a group of seamstresses, told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees while explaining their action in a village of 102 residents, the footage of which was aired by the GMA News network. "If you do bad things [like going to war], you will be cut off, here," Lengs Kupong quoted his wife Kandaru as saying, as he pointed below the waist. "[We realised] if we did something wrong, wives might leave their husbands."