Femen, a Ukrainian group famous for its topless protests, is in news again after a Tunisia court ordered the release of activist Amina Sboui. The Tunisian activist was arrested in mid May after she wrote the word Femen on a cemetery wall in Kairouan, central of Tunisia. She was put on trial for carrying an ‘incendiary object’ (a pepper spray). Conservative groups had accused her of insulting the city of Kairouan, a religious centre.

Recently, French President Francois Hollande had unveiled a new stamp emblazoned with the face of Marianne, France’s revolutionary symbol which is inspired by these feminists known for topless protests. My conversation with Alexandra ‘Sasha’ Shevchenko, co-founder of Femen, and Inna Shevchenko, leader of Femen France, about the group’s ideology.

Why do you use the bared breast as a symbol of protest?

Inna: We started in 2008 as a union of young women who were discussing the problems faced by our sisters and mothers in Ukraine. Back then we followed the classical modes of protests to catch the attention of the government. But nobody was interested in what we had to say. Through our observation and dialogues we realized that the only function which the world assigns to women is sex. You can see it in advertisements which sexualize the female body and the booming sex-trade. This is when we decided that we must subvert the sexual use of the female body and transform our bodies to launch a campaign against patriarchy — we began to bare our breasts and then people noticed us.





Femen has coined a word – sextremism. What does it mean?

Inna: This is a tactic that we use in our fight against male domination. Sextremism means the transformation of the woman’s body into a canvas for protests. We see ourselves as a new brand of feminists. Feminists before us have protested against the domination of men in the society but, at the same time, they stuck to the values of patriarchy which sees a woman’s body as a source of some false sense of honour. They covered themselves up. We have ripped away our clothes and thrown in it the face of patriarchy and given our own meaning to the female body.

Have any of your supporters been picked up by the government, police or special forces?

Inna: Almost every time we protest we are picked up by the authorities. The most harrowing detention took place in 2011 at Minsk, in Belarus, when we were picked up by the KGB. They took three of us deep into the forest and ordered us to strip completely; then they dragged us around by our hair and used various torture techniques upon us. They told us repeatedly that they would kill us. This went on for almost 24 hours, but in the end they left us in the forest. The authorities in France are much gentler and treat us like human beings.

Femen has announced that it is going to send its protest squad to the 2014 football world cup. What is the purpose?

Sasha: A football world cup means that many, many men will get together to watch a game and all they want to do is watch football, drink beer and have sex. I have seen it with my own eyes in Ukraine during the previous world cup. Many of my friends were forced to join the sex trade during the event. Trafficking of women in Eastern Europe is a huge problem. We want countries to criminalise prostitution or follow the Swedish model.





One of the arguments against Femen is that it is intruding into cultures, especially the Islamic one, and projecting its ideals onto a world where they have no place.

Sasha: We don’t discriminate on the basis of sex, colour, religion, race, or any other basis. Torture is not culture. If we go back 40 years into Iran’s history, women had more freedom and didn’t wear the hijab. Using various tropes of religion like hijab is a good way to propagate patriarchal values. Many women in Iran, and the Arab world, are beaten and abused if they don’t cover their faces. Femen is standing up for those countless women who don’t have a voice, and want to rid themselves of the clothes of patriarchy.

Do you support the ban on hijab in countries like France?

Sasha: Yes. We in Femen are anti-religion, and that includes Christian symbols like the church and the cross.





Do you think being naked is empowering for women?



Sasha: We in Femen are naked because we want to take charge of our body. We don’t want our nakedness to be pleasing or erotic. In places like Ukraine another patriarchal version of women is visible — women in short clothes, high heels. This is to look sexy and attract men in order to get married. I realized that my parents wanted me to do a Master’s not because they wanted me to be independent but because that would help me get a ‘better’ husband. I was a doll. Women in Arab countries cover their hands and faces because that is the tradition. A chaste, virgin who covers her face will attract a better match. Different countries have different ways of enforcing patriarchal values.

Femen staged the first naked protest in the Arab world in Tunisia. What did you seek to achieve?

Sasha: Three Femen members, two French and one German, had gone to protest the arrest of our Tunisian member, Amina Tyler. The Salafists and other conservative forces in Tunisia are suffocating women in the name of religion, much like the rest of the Arab world. Earlier, Amina was punished for posting online her topless photos with the slogan “my body is my own” written on her torso.

What do you have to say to women who are against Femen?

Sasha: The most hopeless situation is when people who are slaves can’t see their shackles. Women in the Arab world don’t see their chains just like I didn’t when I was dressing up like a doll. We are protesting for those who don’t see their chains.