TURKEY: Ukrainian feminist activists are detained as they stage a topless protest in Turkey to denounce domestic violence

Record ID: 717234

  • Title: TURKEY: Ukrainian feminist activists are detained as they stage a topless protest in Turkey to denounce domestic violence
  • Date: 9th March 2012
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (MARCH 08, 2012) (REUTERS) FEMEN ACTIVISTS PREPARING FOR PROTEST ACTIVIST FIXING HER HAIR VARIOUS OF FEMEN ACTIVIST PUTTING ON MAKEUP VARIOUS OF A FEMEN ACTIVIST HAVING MAKE-UP OF SCARS ON HER CHEST DONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) FEMEN ACTIVIST INNA SHEVCHENKO SAYING: "Today we will express our solidarity with victims of domestic violence, of violence i
  • Embargoed: 24th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Quirky,Politics,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVABE6NJGT4W99FXYL0EUSOPV1GM
  • Story Text: Ukrainian women's rights activists have staged a noisy, topless protest on Thursday (March 08) outside Istanbul's Hagia Sophia Museum, just hours after a man shot dead a female relative after she left home following an argument with her husband.
    Baring their breasts, wearing bruise-like makeup, and chanting 'Stop domestic violence', members of the 'Femen' group staged the protest, on International Women's Day to draw attention to violence against women.
    "We are showing it on ourselves, what it means to be a victim of domestic violence. What is -- how it is to live in an Islamic country and how it is to be a wife of an Islamic man and we are showing it on ourselves," said Inna Shevchenko, one of the Femen activists," and honestly, now, when I see myself like that I cannot imagine what is their life."
    Police detained the Femen members only minutes after the start of their protest. The protest was received with mixed emotions from bystanders. "This is a good thing," said Istanbul resident Zuleyha Gogebakan. "Those girls are doing what we do not dare to do. I liked it and I hope people will be more sensitive towards human rights."
    Meanwhile a group of Islamic protesters denounced Femen for staging a topless protest in a Muslim country.
    "I denounce them because they cannot defend women's rights by exposing themselves," said one of the protesters, Ali Yemen. "This is not the way to defend women's rights. Women are not objects. They are not a symbol of indecency and women cannot be seen as a symbol of lust. This is wrong and immoral."
    'Femen' regularly stage protests over women's rights and cover a range of causes from campaigning against sex tourism in Ukraine to the treatment of women in parts of the Middle East.
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