UKRAINE: Topless Ukrainian woman activists say they have a serious political mission

Record ID: 826515

  • Title: UKRAINE: Topless Ukrainian woman activists say they have a serious political mission
  • Date: 23rd November 2010
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (FILE - AUGUST 24, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TOPLESS GIRLS FROM FEMEN MOVEMENT BEING DETAINED BY POLICE KIEV, UKRAINE (FILE, MAY 27, 2010) (REUTERS ) VARIOUS OF TOPLESS OLEKSANDRA SHEVCHENKO BEING DETAINED BY POLICE
  • Embargoed: 8th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine, Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACBYUDWB660U3RFXPY4HXNDCR7
  • Story Text: Brazenly provocative, the bare-breasted young women of Femen are becoming an eye-catching -- if unsolicited -- fixture on Ukraine's political scene.
    A small army of 300 young female activists - mainly college students - have shown throughout the past few years that they were ready to peel off in public to support Ukrainian women's rights.
    Femen activists caused a minor diplomatic stir last month during a visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with a topless street protest in which they made raunchy references to his personal life.
    When Putin visited in late October, six Femen activists stripped to the waist near the statue of Soviet state founder Lenin and chanted sexually-charged slogans, telling the Russian leader to keep his hands off Ukraine. "Ukraine is not Alina," read one -- a reference to Alina Kabayeva, the Olympic gymnast whom media speculation links romantically to Putin. The movement members said the Putin action clearly ruffled feathers and police had since questioned many of those who took part.
    At the beginning of November two semi-clad Femen members disrupted an Iranian exhibition with a protest in support of an Iranian woman held in jail for adultery and complicity of murder.
    The members of the movement say they are taking their actions very seriously.
    "The Femen women's movement is my life. This is not a hobby, this is not a job, this is my life. And I would very much like all the women in the world to decide for themselves - like I did - that the Femen women's movement, with its proactive attitude, is their life," says Oleksandra Shevchenko, a 22-year-old economics student who regularly plays a leading role in topless protests.
    The Ukrainian authorities, who once laughed off Femen's activities as cheeky but harmless antics, may now be losing patience after the anti-Putin demonstration which touched a raw nerve in sensitive ties with a powerful neighbour.
    Established in 2008 by a group of Kiev university students, Femen says its main aims are to improve the role of women in the male-dominated, post-Soviet country and to attract attention to the current problems of Ukrainian society. The Femen members are sure that by taking their clothes off they can draw people's attention to serious problems.
    "It's not hard to undress, it 's hard to imagine how far you have to go in order to get a problem resolved. We have found our own way: we shock people, attract their attention, they pay attention to an interesting picture and they get interested in what these girls want to say," 20-year-old journalism student Inna Shevchenko said.
    Sex tourists and visiting foreign businessmen who feed Ukraine's sex industry are the group's main targets. It has also campaigned against sexual harassment of students in universities and railed against international beauty contests such as the Miss Universe competition.
    Even Mykola Azarov -- the country's dour, grey-haired prime minister -- found himself an unlikely target of Femen when he drew fire by naming an all-male government.
    Femen girls are extremely devoted and say that female rights in Ukraine are the most important thing in their lives.
    "Today I can say for sure that I am ready to fight to the death. If I have to die for the women of Ukraine - I will do so," Oleksandra Shevchenko says.
    The explicitly sexual nature of Femen's protests -- young women stripping to the waist, cavorting provocatively and chanting near-obscene slogans -- raises the question of whether its activists are not undermining their own movement's values.
    They themselves see no contradiction, saying that being topless is just the easiest way to attract people's attention.
    Anna Hutsol, Femen's spikey-haired 26-year-old leader says about 300 young women take part in protests, but Internet and email contacts indicate a support base of about 25,000 people. Financing, she says, comes from businessmen and local entrepreneurs who sympathise with their cause.
    Femen's first topless actions in mid-2009 targeted the sex industry, prostitution and the spread of Internet pornography. Early this year the group widened its agenda when Femen activists, protesting about vote-rigging in the presidential election, staged a topless demonstration at a polling booth as President Viktor Yanukovich himself turned up to vote.
    Since then it has held about 30 protests in the capital Kiev including one outside the government building. Many of them are short-lived: a flash of skin and a hurriedly-squawked slogan before security men move in to hustle the Femen activists off-stage.
    As the group broadens its activities to embrace wider causes, Anna Hutsol says Femen is undeterred by increased police action.
    "There is, apparently, a directive from the authorities not to let 'Femen' get undressed. It ," Hutsol said as the members of Femen took part in a photo shoot for a Ukrainian magazine.
    "We had three topless protests in 2009, and nobody detained us. The police were protecting us. I used to call the police before the protest and ask to send more boys to protect us from passers-by. Now it is the other way round, an attempt to take off a t-shirt can end up with arrest," Hutsiol added.
    Its small support base, meagre resources, limited agenda and a "young-centric" membership suggest Femen has little prospect of broadening into a political movement.
    But in a country deeply cynical about politics, Femen represents -- albeit on a modest scale -- one of the few regular street protest movements. Asked if Femen had a political agenda for the future. Hutsol said they have ideas and plans they are working on.
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