Sex boycott wins pipe dream

Women of Sirt: No sex until taps are running

Relief is in sight for the men of Sirt - a village in southern Turkey where women are refusing sex until running water is restored.

Now the government has agreed to give the village men enough pipes to tap a nearby water source, Anatolia news agency has reported.

Sirt, a village near the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, lacks running water for months on end because the existing system is notoriously prone to breakdowns.

They won't be able to get into our bedrooms until the water runs through the taps

Fatma Koru,
village woman

The bedroom boycott began a month ago, when women told their husbands they were fed up with carrying water from wells up to several kilometres away.

"We're happy that it is finally arriving," one woman said on hearing that a pipeline was on the way. "Everything starts and ends with water."

She is one of a majority of village women said to be supporting the ban on sex.

Not surprisingly, the village's head man, Ibrahim Sari, was also pleased with the news, although he said he had yet to be officially informed of the authorities' decision.

"We had asked for the material and are ready to build it ourselves," he said, adding that construction of the pipeline would take about a month.

Mr Sari had previously sympathised with the women, but said it was their husbands who were actually suffering.

Despite the latest news, the men of Sirt may have to contain themselves for a while longer.

Some hardliners among the women say the sex drought will go on until the pipeline is complete.

"They won't be able to get into our bedrooms until the water runs through the taps," one of them, Fatma Koru, said with a laugh.

"The protest will continue."