"Sometimes you need to show your breasts for ideological reasons" - Anna Hutsul

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Ukraine's topless protesters gain fame

They have shed their shirts to promote women's rights, to support an Iranian woman sentenced to death for adultery and murder, and, most brazenly, to protest a visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The bare-breasted young women of Femen, about 300 strong, are becoming a fixture in Ukrainian politics. The group, formed about two years ago by Kiev university students, says its main aim is to improve the lot of women in Ukraine's male-dominated, post-Soviet society.

"We want to show that our women have a demeaning role in our society. Their place is seen as in the kitchen or in bed," Alexandra Shevchenko, a 22-year-old economics student who regularly plays a leading role in topless protests, told Reuters.

Femen's initial targets were prostitution and discrimination against women. It has branched out to tax policy, freedom of speech and, as seen with Putin's visit last month, foreign affairs. "We won't sleep with Kremlin midgets" read one of the placards.

The group has become so popular that founder Anna Hutsul, 26, plans to launch a political party and run for parliament.

"If sexuality is used to sell cars and cookies, why not use it for social and political projects," Hutsul tells the Associated Press. "Sometimes you need to show your breasts for ideological reasons."

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Topless protesters gain fame in Ukraine

By MARIA DANILOVA

The Associated Press

Friday, November 19, 2010; 12:53 PM

KIEV, Ukraine -- How to protest domestic violence, corruption and a visit by Russia's Vladimir Putin? Ukraine's answer: take off your bra!

A group of young activists is gaining popularity here for staging topless protests that involve sexually charged gestures, obscene slogans and scuffles with security guards and police. Often, the point seems to be just getting naked.

The activists, slender, long-legged beauties with traditional Ukrainian flower wreaths in their hair, say they are promoting women's rights and fighting for democracy, but some critics say they're just seeking fame and undermining the feminist cause.

"If sexuality is used to sell cars and cookies, why not use it for social and political projects," said Anna Hutsul, 26, the chain-smoking leader of Femen who has closely cropped red hair. "Sometimes you need to show your breasts for ideological reasons."

It's perhaps no coincidence that Femen originated in Ukraine, where the 2004 Orange Revolution ushered in chaotic democracy and made noisy street protests something of a national sport.

Born out of a girls' pajama party two years ago, the group has turned into popular movement whose escapades are the subject of evening news, talks shows and blog gossip. They've become so popular, in fact, that Hutsul plans to launch a political party and run for parliament.

The group campaigns against prostitution and discrimination of women but also weighs in on a wide range of hot topics in Ukraine such as the tax code, freedom of speech and foreign borrowings by the government.

Sometimes, it seems, they are merely looking for a pretext. "We don't really care, we just want to show our boobs," says the group's blog about one protest.

Femen started out somewhat shyly, at least by the group's standards today. In the summer of 2008 activists wearing skimpy bikinis dove into a fountain in downtown Kiev to protest the shortages of water in student dormitories. Then, one by one, activists started bearing their chests at rallies. Today all of their protesters are topless - something, Hutsul insists, is different from public nudity, which is banned under Ukrainian law as "hooliganism."

The distinction is often lost on police, which routinely fine and briefly detain the activists for bearing their breasts in public.

The group came to the spotlight this year when they flashed their boobs in front of scores of photo and television cameras at a polling station where future President Viktor Yanukovych was expected to cast his ballot in presidential elections and shouted "Stop raping the country."

Femen sabotaged Ukraine's top fashion show last month when two bare-chested activists climbed on the runway holding posters that read "The Runway is a Meat Shop" and "Model, don't go to Brothel." Some in the audience were confused by the combination of bare chests and chants against treating women as sex objects.

"The way we present our message and the message itself - they contradict each other," agreed Hutsul, an economist by training and a former show business manager who moved to Kiev from a provincial city in western Ukraine. Hutsul herself doesn't take part in topless protests in order to have a "serious person" representing Femen in official institutions and on talk shows.

The group caused a minor diplomatic scandal in late October when five activists undressed near the statue of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin and urged visiting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to stop interfering in Ukrainian politics. "Ukraine is not Alina" read one of their banners, a reference to media speculation that Putin was romantically involved with former champion gymnast Alina Kabayeva, which he denies. Other posters made unflattering remarks about his physical appearance. The protest eventually earned two members a night in jail.

Women's rights activists say that a strong and vocal women's movement is needed in Ukraine, where civil society and feminism were virtually nonexistent in the Soviet times.

Larysa Kobelianska, head of a UN-led women's rights program said that women make up only 8.5 percent of the Ukrainian parliament compared to an average of 30 percent in Europe. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov named an all-male Cabinet this year saying that "Conducting reforms is not a woman's business." On average, women here earn 30 percent less then men occupying similar posts and only 2 percent of large companies are headed by women, Kobelianska said.

She described Femen as "radical feminists" and said the group has succeeded in attracting public attention to women's problems, even if by questionable means.

The group's top activist, Inna Shevchenko, 20, insists that she can be both a feminist and a sex bomb.

"We have our body, our beauty, our sexuality and we can combine it with brains, with ambitions, with achieving our goals, serious goals," said the tall blonde, a journalism major at a leading Ukrainian university, who was detained after the anti-Putin protest. "We should not be hiding our bodies. I have both a body and ambitions. Take me for what I am!"

The group comprises some 20 topless activists, 300 fully clothed members and thousands of online activists throughout the country, according to Hutsul. Their financial sponsors and fans include a German disk jockey, a U.S. businessman in Kiev and an elderly retiree in a faraway village who vowed to campaign for the group among his neighbors.

A recent idea to sell "boobographs" - imprints of the activists' breasts, one blue and one yellow representing the colors of the Ukrainian flag, has drawn even more fans and helped raise funds for the group. One such souvenir from a new member of the group is sold for $50, a poster from veteran activists costs $100.

Some Ukrainians complain, however, that Femen protests can become outright tasteless, like when activist Oksana Shachko took off her jacket, pulled down her pants and squatted in the center of the capital holding a sign reading "I Want to Pee" to protest the shortage of public toilets in Kiev.

Others say some of Femen escapades are meaningless, such as when Shevchenko clad in nothing but black panties, stockings, suspenders and a helmet disturbed a respected women's rights conference. The argument was that the experts talk too much and do too little.

"Your clothes, dressing, undressing - it should not be about that," said Anna Dubrovina, 31, a manager at a telecommunications company in Kiev. "It should be about what you do, about your achievements."

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Ukraine's topless group widens political role

By Richard Balmforth

KIEV | Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:44pm EST

KIEV (Reuters) - Brazenly provocative, the bare-breasted young women of Femen are becoming an eye-catching -- if unsolicited -- fixture on Ukraine's political scene.

Anna Hutsol, Femen's spikey-haired 26-year-old leader, says she commands a small army of 300 mainly student activists ready to peel off in public to support Ukrainian women's rights.

As the group broadens its activities to embrace wider causes, she says Femen is undeterred by increased police action. "We plan more protests this year," Hutsol told Reuters.

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.

Last week 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 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 neighbor.

"The police are becoming more aggressive now. But at least that shows we are being taken seriously," Hutsol told Reuters in an interview in a downtown Kiev cafe.

UKRAINIAN WOMEN'S PLIGHT

Established in 2008 by a group of Kiev university students, Femen says its main aims are to improve the role of women in Ukraine's male-dominated, post-Soviet society.

"We want to show that our women have a demeaning role in our society. Their place is seen as in the kitchen or in bed," said Alexandra Shevchenko, a 22-year-old economics student who regularly plays a leading role in topless protests.

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.

But this is no classic women's movement.

In conversation, Femen activists invoke no role models. Ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's best known woman, is for them just another actor on a stale political scene.

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.

But they themselves see no contradiction. "We started out being dressed but we found nobody took any notice. I'm a big fan of taking off our clothes. It's how we get attention for our views," said Shevchenko.

"It's all we've got, our bodies. We are not ashamed of this," said 20-year-old Inna, a journalism student.

Hutsol 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 sympathize with their cause.

TARGETS WIDENING

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.

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.

Hutsol said the Putin action clearly ruffled feathers and police had since questioned many of those who took part.

Its small support base, meager 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: "We do have some ideas, some plans. We are working on them."

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Topless feminists protest against Iranian stoning sentence

Topless female protesters were dragged away from an Iranian cultural event in Kiev, Ukraine, as they demonstrated against the death sentence given to Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani for allegedly murdering her husband.

Activists from Ukrainian pressure group Femen tore off their clothes and shouted slogans against 'court-sanctioned murder' during the event at the Ukrainian House convention centre which was attended by hundreds of Ukrainian and Iranian dignitaries.

'Don't kill women!' shouted one as security guards moved to expel the protesters after a scuffle.

The audience at the even later received an apology from Ukrainian officials, who said: 'At least we don't have to be ashamed about what we have on display.'

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani's case, which Iranian authorities say is under review, has sparked international protests in recent months.

The 43-year-old mother of two is currently imprisoned in the north-western city of Tabriz.

Iran's prosecutor-general, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeh, was quoted this week by IRNA - the country's official news agency - as saying her case is still under investigation, with more time needed to finalise it.

Members of Femen, one of Ukraine's best-known political action groups, are known for taking their clothes off to draw attention to their causes.