Topless feminists protest Islamist oppression
Posted: April 6, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Berlin, Brussels, FEMEN, Islamism, Kiev, Paris, Tunisia, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali Comments Off on Topless feminists protest Islamist oppression
04/Apr/2013
Source: AFP (Amy)
Bare-breasted activists staged rallies in front of mosques and Tunisian embassies in Berlin and across Europe Thursday against what they called an Islamist crackdown on Arab women’s rights.
Protesters from the Ukrainian women’s power group Femen held “International Topless Jihad Day” in capitals such as Berlin, Kiev and Paris and painted their torsos with slogans including “Bare breasts against Islamism.”
“We’re free, we’re naked, it’s our right, it’s our body, it’s our rules, and nobody can use religion, and some other holy things, to abuse women, to oppress them,” Femen member Alexandra Shevchenko said at a small demonstration in front of a Berlin mosque amid temperatures near the freezing point.
“And we’ll fight against them. And our boobs will be stronger than their stones.”
The rallies targeted in particular the case of a Tunisian activist calling herself Amina Tyler who sparked a scandal last month when she posted pictures of herself online with the words “My body belongs to me” and “Fuck your morals” emblazoned across her naked breasts.
Supporters fear she could face criminal prosecution.
Police in Kiev detained two young activists with “Free Amina” on their exposed chests immediately after their arrival in front of the city’s sole mosque.
Around two dozen topless feminists in Paris whose bodies were tagged with “No Islamists” and “No sharia” tried to approach the Tunisian embassy but were deterred by police as they emerged from the subway, an AFP photographer said.
And in Brussels a small group of women stripped to the waist gathered in front of the Grand Mosque shouting “Fuck your morals” and “Free Amina”, while three protested briefly outside the Tunisian consulate in Milan.
Tunisia was once seen as one of the Arab world‘s most progressive countries on women’s rights.
But NGOs have accused the Islamist party Ennahda, which came to power after the revolution that overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali‘s regime in 2011, of seeking to roll back women’s rights. They say those rights must be enshrined in a new constitution expected this year.
The Femen group has been making headlines since 2010 for eye-catching protests against various causes since 2010.
‘Stone her to death’: Tunisian preacher demands protester, 19, is executed for posting topless pictures on Facebook
Posted: March 28, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Amina, Arab Spring, Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Saudi Arabia), Facebook, FEMEN, Islamism, Sihem Badi, Tunisia Comments Off on ‘Stone her to death’: Tunisian preacher demands protester, 19, is executed for posting topless pictures on Facebook27/March/2013
Source : .dailymail.co.uk (Martin Ray)
A Ukrainian women’s rights group is calling for a ‘topless revolution’ in Tunisia after a Muslim preacher demanded a girl who posted naked pictures of herself online be stoned because she is an ‘epidemic’.
FEMEN, which regularly stages high-profile naked protests, is declaring April 4 the day of ‘relentless topless jihad against Islamism‘ in a bid to jump-start a new Arab Spring for women’s rights.
Amina Tyler, 19, caused outrage in her native Tunisia last week when she posted topless photos of herself on her Facebook page.
It is unclear from reports in the Arab press whether Amina posted these photos while in Tunisia.
Reports in Europe and the U.S. have stated that Amina has been taken by her parents to a psychiatric hospital in Tunis, which have been confirmed by FEMEN leader Inna Shevchenko in Paris.
Tunisian media said that if Amina committed the offence in her own country, she could be punished by up to two years in prison and be given a fine between £40 and £400 pounds.
Yet her act has caused conservative religious leaders there to take laws into their own hands.
Recent reports claim that FEMEN’s Facebook account was hacked and that one page been infiltrated with videos and pictures on the site with verses from the Koran.
Extreme views: Salafist preacher Adel Almi (pictured) called for Amina to be ‘quarantined’ and stoned to death after comparing her to someone with a contagious illness
‘Thanks to God we have hacked this immoral page and the best is yet to come,’ read one message signed by ‘al-Angour,’ an apparent hacker.
Salafist religious leaders in Tunisia want Amina to be stoned to death.
Tunisian newspaper AssabahNews quoted Salafi preacher Adel Almi, who heads the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, saying: ‘According to God’s law, she deserves 80 to 100 lashes, but what she committed is worth much more than that.
‘She deserves to be stoned to death and she must be quarantined because what she did is an epidemic.’
‘She is like someone suffering from a serious and contagious illness and she must be secluded and treated,’ he added.
FEMEN responded with a statement condemning ‘barbarian threats of the Islamists’ and said that April 4 will mark the ‘beginning of a new, genuine Arab Spring, after which true freedom, freedom without mullahs and caliphs, will come to Tunisia!
‘Long live the topless jihad against infidels!’ before ending on a high note: ‘Our tits are deadlier than your stones!’
A petition and an international day of action on April 4 to highlight the threats against Amina have been organised by the group.
More than 10,000 people have already signed the petition that called for those who threatened Amina’s life to be prosecuted.
A spokesman for Human Rights Watch said: ‘The comments of the Tunisian preacher Adel Almi saying that Amina Tyler should be stoned to death could put her at serious risk of being harmed.
Statement: A FEMEN protester is hauled away during a demonstration at the Italian elections last month
Last month, FEMEN brought together Iranian women in Sweden, who took to the streets of Stockholm demonstrating against the Hijab (Islamic headscarf).
One of its leaders also recently condemned Elmar Brok, a powerful German MEP in the European parliament for seeking the services of Ukrainian prostitutes, an accusation which he has yet to deny.
Tunisia is going through a period of turbulence with human rights a central theme of street demonstrations.
Backlash: FEMEN is declaring April 4 the day of ‘relentless topless jihad against Islamism’ in a bid to jump-start a new Arab Spring for women’s rights
Protesters on Monday demanded the resignation of Tunisia’s minister for women’s affairs, Sihem Badi, accusing her of defending a children’s nursery where a three-year-old girl was raped, according to the French news agency AFP.
The toddler was raped repeatedly by the caretaker of a nursery in a smart suburb of the capital, according to the police, which led to an arrest of the suspect.
Yet early indications are suggesting that he may escape prosecution following the minister’s comments which seemed to shift the blame to the family and hinted that he would ‘no measures against the caretaker were needed’ according to AFP.
‘Three weeks ago, my life turned into a nightmare. When I imagine my daughter, who weighs 10 kilos, in the hands — and on several occasions — of this 55-year-old caretaker, I have only one wish, to die,’ the father of the victim told the French news wire.
‘The children’s nursery is still open despite what happened to my daughter,’ he added, his voice welling with emotion.
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