The sex strike was basically to get the men mobilized to speak to their buddies who had the guns. The idea was if the women were not paying attention to their husbands, the husbands would talk to their buddies, or they would get involved in some kind of advocacy. Little did we know that the whole idea of a sex strike was the best media strategy. Because at the time, we were being ignored. If you look at the state of our world, media is anything sexy, anything you sell. So once we said “sex strike,” everyone was at our door the next morning wanting to know how a group of African women were going to accomplish a sex strike. So while we talked about it, we also add the story of the essence of our protest.
And the women in our movement go around — nine countries were being told, “You can’t have sex with your husband.” So you had to put it that you’re praying, you’re fasting, whatever way you can put it. But until we have peace, we have to do a sex strike. It was more successful in the rural areas than the urban areas, because the women were — in one particular area, the women took their husbands into the mosques, into the church, and made them to vow to God that they would not bother them for sex until peace came.