Naked ambition: Ukrainian topless protests go global
Published: 28 November, 2011, 11:32
Edited: 28 November, 2011, 15:44
Activists from Ukraine's scandalous FEMEN group holds a banner reading "woman is not a commodity" as they stage a topless protest in Zurich (AFP Photo / Sebastien Bozon)
(27.2Mb) embed videoTAGS: Scandal, Ukraine, Protest, Politics, Europe, Human rights, Aleksey Yaroshevsky
A naked woman in a city's central square is bound to attract attention, which is exactly what Ukraine’s Femen group is hoping for with a series of high-profile demonstrations against the abuse of women's rights which has made the news across Europe.
And as RT found out, the Ukrainian feminists are ready to conquer new horizons.
On a chilly morning in Kiev, half-naked women in racing outfits drink champagne and chant slogans. This is how the Femen movement celebrated the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi. Several days prior to that, Femen were in Rome, lending their support for the anti-Berlusconi protests.
“We had staged a lot of protests against Berlusconi and his sexual adventures here in Kiev. And we are really happy his political career has finished,” activist Aleksandra Shevchenko told RT.
“But we came to the Italian embassy not only to celebrate, but to say that he needs to go on trial for his sexual crimes,” Femen member Inna Shevchenko added.
For more than a week, Ukraine’s topless protesters have been making themselves heard across Europe on a road trip dedicated to drawing attention to the sexual exploitation of women.
While in Rome, one of their activists even made a revealing protest against injustice towards women in the Catholic Church at the Vatican, right in front of the Pope. Before that, they hit Paris, storming the residence of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
“Women from Italy came to us in Switzerland and said: ‘We know that you’re coming to Rome and will be staging protests against Berlusconi and the Pope. Thank you,’ they said, ‘for sharing our problems,’” Alexandra Shevchenko continued.
Their wild bra-free rallies in Ukraine have been making international headlines for several years, from protesting against the alarming rate of prostitution, especially with the upcoming Euro 2012 football tournament, to exposing flaws in Ukraine’s politics. Now they are looking even further afield.
“We understood that classic feminism no longer works,” Inna Shevchenko said. “It is, if you excuse me, impotent. But what we do brings the desired effect. That’s why not only Ukraine needs us, but Europe as well. We are planning to take over the world.”
The Femen movement has been well-received at home in Ukraine and in Europe, and now its members are planning to extend their reach even further.
“We receive lots of letters telling us to continue fighting religious injustice towards women, especially in Muslim states. That’s where we want to develop,” Alexandra Shevchenko told RT. “We are even ready to go to Iran or any other Islamic state to stage our topless protests, knowing all risks it could entail for us.”
In Ukraine alone, Femen has garnered tens of thousands of supporters. The network has taken root in Europe and now stretches as far as the United States. But with sex-tourism, prostitution, and the ‘mail-order bride’ industry still plaguing Ukrainian society, Femen say they still have a lot demons to fight at home.
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13 comments
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Ukraine FEMEN started the protests, the brave Swiss women helped the cause of women with continuing support. FEMEN protests must continue to keep the cause - "abuse" alive and knowledgeable for other women to follow suit.
joseph walker wrote in#1
Carry on girls,don't fancy seeing Cameron,Sarkozy ,or Obama topless.they scary looking dressed up,dont want our chldren having nightmares seeing them topless.
Astonishing ,one of the girls said, they are planning to go to Iran, asking Ahmadinejad to join them, fantastic, probably he wet himself in the public?Ha Ha









in the last two years the world has been informed,for the first time, that prostitution is not what we all thought it was. The book 'Half The Sky', CNN Freedom Project (and associated documentaries) and the film 'The Whistleblower', have all reported the shocking fact that there are approximately 20 million women and girls forced into prostitution by trafficking gangs or pimps acting alone,worldwide. Every country in the world is affected. The girls can be as young as eight, sold to the gangs by their parents. Or they may be uneducated teenagers, very poor, lured to another country by an agency that promises them decent wages for factory or domestic work.When they get to the other country their passports are taken away from them and they are forced into prostitution. .They are beaten or killed if they try to escape. They are told that their families will be harmed if they escape to the police to plead their case. Sometimes they are young women who fall in love with an older boyfriend.He asks her if she will go to his country with him to meet his parents, and when they get there he changes his attitude towards her and becomes violent towards her and forces her to work as a prostitute ,threatening to kill her if she does not cooperate. These girls are usually young and very easy to frighten and manipulate.Often young girls who have been used as prostitutes from a young age are no use to the pimps by the time they are twenty and they are cast 'free' they carry on as prostitutes by choice as by then their lives have been ruined and it is all they know as a way of making money. And this is the case for most prostitutes. International pimping gangs are very rich and very powerful second to illegal arms dealers. They operate in every country. So you may find a frightened young Nigerian girl in Italy or a frightened young Cambodian girl in Turkey. We are only now understanding the scale and realities of prostitution which is usually forced in one way or another,we are discovering. It is this forced prostitution that FEMEN are protesting about. They are wanting the world to know about it.