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[auriea]

JULY 14, 15:03 ET

Oil Standoff Women Threaten Nudity

By D'ARCY DORAN
Associated Press Writer
ESCRAVOS, Nigeria (AP) ‹ Unarmed village women holding 700 
ChevronTexaco workers inside a southeast Nigeria oil terminal let 200 
of the men go Sunday but threatened a traditional and powerful 
shaming gesture if the others try to leave ‹ removing their own 
clothes.
``Our weapon is our nakedness,'' said Helen Odeworitse, a 
representative for the villagers in the extraordinary week-old 
protest for jobs, electricity and development in Nigeria's oil-rich 
Niger Delta.
Most Nigerian tribes consider unwanted displays of nudity by wives, 
mothers or grandmothers as an extremely damning protest measure that 
can inspire a collective source of shame for those at whom the action 
is directed.
About 600 women from two nearby communities are holding 
ChevronTexaco's giant Escravos terminal. They range in age from 30 to 
90 ‹ with the core group being married women aged 40 or older.
The women want the oil giant to hire their sons and use some of the 
region's oil riches to develop their remote and run-down villages ‹ 
most of which lack even electricity. The people in the Niger Delta 
are among the poorest in Nigeria, despite living on the oil-rich land.