This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
Last month, women in a civil rights group in Togo called a weeklong sex strike to try to force the president of the West African nation to resign. Members of "Let's Save Togo" planned to withhold sex from their husbands to pressure the men to take action against President Faure Gnassingbe.
上周，多哥一个民权组织的妇女号召进行为期一周的性罢工，以试图迫使这个西非国家的总统辞职。这个名为“拯救多哥”的民权组织的成员计划拒绝与自己的丈夫发生性行为，以迫使他采取行动反对该国总统福雷·纳辛贝（Faure Gnassingbe）。
The opposition says his family has ruled Togo for too long. Withholding sex for political goals has a long history. It was used in ancient Greece. In the play "Lysistrata," the women of Athens decide to stop having sex with their husbands until the men end the Peloponnesian War.
反对派表示，福雷家族统治多哥的时间太长了。为实现政治目标拒绝性行为有着悠久的历史，这招曾在古希腊被用过。在戏剧《莉西斯特拉忒》中，雅典妇女决定停止与自己的丈夫发生性行为，直到他们结束伯罗奔尼撒战争。
But do sex strikes work? Pepper Schwartz is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle. She says the idea is good for making news headlines, but it takes a lot of work.
但性罢工有效吗？佩珀·舒瓦茨（Pepper Schwartz）是西雅图市华盛顿大学的社会学教授。她说这个想法有利于做头条新闻，但它只是白费功夫（take a lot of work）。
PEPPER SCHWARTZ: "If you're talking about a few days where women make a point, I think that works. If you're talking about turning a whole nation around because nobody's getting any, I wouldn't put hard money on that because I don't think people stick to sex strikes. Yes, it's good to bring consciousness to your mate, [but] it's probably hard to stick to. Three, if you do stick to it too long, you might lose that other person's willingness to support your issue. So it's a tricky thing. I think it's a good headline, a lot harder to put into practice."
舒瓦茨：“如果咱们说的是女性阐明观点的这几天，我认为这有效。如果咱们说的是把整个国家扭转过来，因为没有得到性，我不会支持这种观点。因为我不认为人们会坚守性罢工。是的，它有利于给伴侣带去某种意识，但它可能很难坚持。第三，如果你坚持性罢工时间太长，你可能会失去他人支持你观点的意愿。所以这是一件棘手的事情。我认为它是一个好头条新闻，付诸实践要难得多。”
But pro-democracy activists in Togo say a sex strike during the civil war in Liberia gave them cause for hope. In two thousand three, Liberia had been through fourteen years of war. Leaders of the group Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace organized a series of nonviolent actions. Those included a sex strike.
多哥支持民主的活动人士表示，利比里亚内战期间的性罢工给他们带来了希望。2003年时利比里亚已经经历了14年的战争。利比里亚和平运动妇女联盟（Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace）的领导人组织了一系列非暴力活动，其中就包括性罢工。
The actions earned the group's leader a share of the twenty-eleven Nobel Peace Prize. Leymah Gbowee shared the prize with two other women, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She became Africa's first democratically elected female president in two thousand six. The third winner was Tawakkul Karman, a women's rights activist in Yemen.
这一行动让该组织领导人蕾曼.格鲍伊（Leymah Gbowee）与包括利比里亚总统埃伦.约翰逊-瑟利夫（Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf）在内的另两名女性共同获得了2011诺贝尔和平奖。约翰逊-瑟利夫于2006年成为非洲第一位民选女总统。第三名获奖者是也门女权人士塔瓦库尔.卡门（Tawakkul Karman）。
Yaliwe Clarke is a lecturer in gender studies at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
克拉克（Yaliwe Clarke）是南非开普敦大学一名两性研究讲师。
YALIWE CLARKE: "I think if there's a sharing of the gains of this approach with other African women, then it will inspire them just like in Liberia -- this, the way in which the Mass Action for Peace, the methods that the women used in Liberia for the Mass Action for Peace. They've been written about, a film has been made, so now, you know African women are saying, 'Well, we can do that, as well.'"
克拉克：“我认为如果这一途径的得到的收获能让其它非洲妇女也分享到，它就会激励她们，就像利比里亚和平运动所做的那样。利比里亚和平运动被写成书，拍成了一部电影。所以现在非洲妇女都在说，‘我们也能做到那些。’”
But Pepper Schwartz at the University of Washington says women need to hold real power in order for something like a sex strike to work.
但华盛顿大学的舒瓦茨表示，为了让性罢工类似的活动产生效果，妇女需要掌握实权。
PEPPER SCHWARTZ: "They only work in proportion to the amount of power women have in a society. In other words, you have to have a certain amount of power already to tell your husband no. In some societies your husband would pound on you or, you know, enact his own kinds of revenge, but you have to have a society where a man respects a woman's opinion and her desire to say no and will, in fact, respect her for it."
舒瓦茨：“它们产生的效果与社会中女性拥有的权力大小成正比。换句话说，你必须有一定的权力吩咐你的丈夫。在一些社会中，丈夫会打你，或者实施他自己的报复。你必须在一个男性尊重女性观点和她说不的愿望的这样一个社会，也就是尊重她。”
(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)