MY NEW HERO
The women of Barbacoas, Colombia
After years of protest, hunger strikes and unfulfilled promises, the women of Barbacoas took matters into their own hands. They decided that their plight went beyond road construction and that their human rights were effectively being violated by the state. With their town located in a volatile region of the country affected by ongoing guerrilla and paramilitary attacks, women feel they need a safe and direct route into the rest of the province to be able to lead their lives with dignity…. Ruby Quinonez, one of the leaders of the “crossed legs movement”, stated: “We are being deprived of our most human rights and as women we can’t allow that to happen … Why bring children into this world when they can just die without medical attention and we can’t even offer them the most basic rights? We decided to stop having sex and stop having children until the state fulfills its previous promises.”…. [T]he women of Barbacoas banned sex from the town. Under the banner of “No more sex. We want our road”, they have been sticking to their guns since June.
When I was in college, I remember the theater department staging a production of Lysistrata. The plot revolves around one womans’s extraordinary efforts to end the Peloponnesian War. The story reflects the conflict between the frustration of women over a seemingly constant state of war and their desire for peace and the desire of men to continue fighting on until victory is achieved…at last insofar as they can define “victory.”
After coming to realize that cajoling, persuasion, and nagging will not achieve their desired end, the women resort to the “nuclear option”: they come together and decide to withhold sex from their men until the men agree to negotiate a peace settlement and lay down their weapons. As the plot develops, the strategy employed by the women inflames tensions between the sexes, and Lysistrata serves as an early exposé of sexual politics in a heavily patriarchal society.
Lys.: There are a lot of things about us women
That sadden me, considering how men
See us as rascals. Cal.: As indeed we are!
Taking a page from the ancient Greeks, the women of Barbacoa have decided that there is strength in numbers, and they’ve also decided to employ the “nuclear option” in their efforts to force the provincial government to provide a paved road connecting Barbacoas to the rest of the province. Since June 22nd, the women of Barbacoas have withheld sex from their men in an effort to demonstrate how serious they are about their demand for a modern, paved road. What they’re calling the “crossed legs movement” is an expression of their collective political power in a patriarchal society that normal affords little in the way of a voice.
The failure by previous administrations to take action has left Barbacoas virtually unreachable by car, leading to scores of deaths…. At first, the protest met with muted amusement and opposition from the town’s residents. But as the movement grew, the men’s initial resistance quickly turned to support. It easy to understand why their resolve is not faltering: the lack of a paved road means that even the cost of food is five or six times that of other regions of the country. But this isn’t just about the price of goods or convenience: there have been many deaths linked to the lack of adequate infrastructure, as ambulances get stuck in the mud trying to reach town. Judge Marybell Silva, spokesperson for the movement, said: “I personally had to see a 23-year-old pregnant woman die along with her unborn baby just because the ambulance got stuck on the road and could not reach [the capital of the region]. That’s when I knew we had to do something.”
The sad reality is that, even today, the concerns of women are seldom taken seriously, even when those concerns involve basic matters of life, death, and the accessibility of basic health care. In too many parts of the world, women are still viewed as property, best seen and not heard. Because of this, women seldom have the means available to make themselves heard, much less create an atmosphere conducive to direct, collective action.
Personally, I’m surprised that the men of Barbacoas have managed to hold out this long. I think I would have lasted about a week (perhaps not even that long) before I began raising all sorts of Hell. The commitment of the women of Barbacoas will ultimately result in a road being built, of that I have little doubt. Either that, or the men will take the provincial capitol by storm and hang the responsible officials from a tree in the town square. Lord knows I’d be leading the charge….
