Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Tongan expat urges women to sex strike to change land ownership laws

Posted at 22:39 on 05 November, 2009 UTC

One of the directors of the Tongan American Society is urging women in his home country to begin a sex strike to change the land ownership laws.

Sione Mokofisi says the current law restricting land ownership to men and the government’s recent decision not to ratify a United Nations anti-discrimination treaty are just two reflections of the second class status of women.

Mr Mokofisi, a Utah resident, says the hundreds of women fasting in protest at the CEDAW decision are taking too mild an approach.

He says although withholding sex would be a desperate measure, Tongan women have no other real power with which to improve their status.

“It’s immoral. It’s wrong to deny one class of citizens the rights that another class is entitled to. Clause Four in the Tongan constitution it prohibits having a law that favours one class over another and what this law does is creates a different class of underclass citizens which are the women.”

Sione Mokofisi of the Tongan American Society.