Femen

Inna Shevchenko caused outrage among many in Ukraine when she used a chainsaw to fell a large cross in the centre of Kiev. She says she has now been granted political asylum in France.

She said the cross felling was in sympathy with the Russian punk band Pussy Riot who were prosecuted with the encouragement of the Russian church.

She has said she received death threats after cutting down the cross, which was, according to Ukrainian media, a monument to victims of Stalin's repression in the 1920s and 1930s.

Ms Shevchenko fled to France, where she has set up a branch of the controversial feminist movement and mounted a series of stunts, in which Femen members bare their breasts in protest.

Three European FEMEN activists who protested topless outside the Tunisian Palace of Justice have been sentenced to four months in prison in Tunisia. The two French women and one German are members of the protest group and were charged with indecency.

Their Tunisian lawyer, Souhaib Bohri, said:

The three Femen protesters are shocked by this sentence. The judge has given them each four months in prison for violating decency and modesty

The prison sentence was seen as harsh by many who thought that the women would be acquitted or fined and deported from the country.

The Femen France Facebook page responded to the verdict:

With this decision the Tunisian powers have shown us their own theocratic savagery and demonstrated to the whole world their neglect of international democratic conventions... the women's movement Femen will not leave its activists to rot in prison, it calls on the world to stand up for the brave freedom fighters!

Update: EU Response

14th June 2013. From vagazette.com

The European Union has said that the jail sentences handed down to three European feminist activists who staged a topless protest in Tunisia were too severe and urged the Islamist-led government to reform its laws on freedom of expression. A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said:

The EU is surprised by the severity of the judgment. To ensure ... freedom of expression, the EU underlines the need to revise laws inherited from the previous regimes, which can be used to restrict it.

The criticism seems a bit fake given that the UK has jailed the Naked Rambler for more than 6 years.

Update: Freed

27th June 2013. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

A court in Tunisia has freed three European feminists jailed for staging a topless protest, their lawyer has said. Bahri Souhaib said their sentences had been suspended, and that they would leave Tunisia as soon as possible.

The women - Pauline Hillier, Marguerite Stern and Josephine Markmann - argued that there had been nothing sexual or offensive about their protest, the first of its kind seen in the Arab world.

I didn't think it was going to shock Tunisians to that extent. Given the consequences, I would never do it again. We want to return to our country and our loved ones, Ms Hillier told the court on Wednesday.

Femen report on the Tunisian trial of the 3 Femen members detained after a topless protest:

Today, the court of Tunisia extended jail time for activists FEMEN until June 12 by moving the trial. The trial of activists increasingly losing its legal features and more and more is starting to look like bandits kidnapping.

In the courtroom activists have been put in bags on their heads, wrapped in the blanket, the judge banned the photos and video.

According to the human rights activist Patrick Klugman, who came from Paris to represent the interests of the FEMEN:

I am horrified. Without giving speech to activists of FEMEN, the court listened only Salafist organizations which are not even the defendants in this case! Fair trial did not take place because the accused have not been released from custody, and they were not even listened to.

Just before the trial for FEMEN in Tunis French sextremists staged a topless prayer to Allah for the early release of Tunisian prisoners.

FEMEN activists prayed in front of the Tunisian Embassy in Paris. In religious Ecstasy activists were shouting Amina Akbar! Pauline Akbar! ', ' Marguerite Akbar! , Josephine Akbar! , FEMEN women's spring goes! .

Meanwhile three members of a radical Ukrainian feminist group have been expelled from Tunisia on suspicion of planning another topless protest in front of the court where their colleagues were being tried on charges of public indecency, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.

Three activists from the feminist group Femen have been arrested after baring their breasts in Tunis in what the group described as its first topless protest in an Islamic state.

The women from German and France were detained after taking off their coats outside the Ministry of Justice on May 29, revealing their naked chests scrawled with: Breasts Feed Revolution and holding signs saying: Fuck your morals!

They said their action was in support of the Tunisian woman, Amina Tyler, who posted topless pictures of herself online as a form of protest. Tyler was protesting against hard-line Islamists earlier this month and is currently awaiting trial.

The Femen activists' May 29 action quickly drew a crowd until police led the women away.

Update: Charged

1st June 2013. See  article from  huffingtonpost.com

Three European activists who protested topless in front of the Tunis courthouse in solidarity with a Tunisian member have been charged with offending public decency and threatening public order, their attorney said.

The members of Femen were demonstrating for the release of Amina Sboui, who angered conservatives with a protest in the religious center of Kairouan in which she allegedly scrawled the name of the group on a cemetery wall.

The protesters, two French women and a German, were forcibly removed from the courthouse during Sboui's trial on Thursday by police as angry Tunisians demonstrated against them and attacked journalists.

Lawyer Souhaib Bahri said they would appear in court June 5 and face up to six months in prison.

  Two activists from the Femen feminist group protested on stage during the final of Heidi Klum's casting show Germany's Next Top Model in Mannheim, Germany.

Klum got quite the surprise on the final episode of Germany's Next Top Model when the stage was suddenly ambushed by two topless women throwing their arms in the air with Heidi Horror Picture Show written on their chests.

There has been no clear explanation as to what the two semi-naked women were exactly attempting to protest.

The model reality show continued business as usual after the interruption.