Femen topless protest targets Tunisia's justice ministry
Three Femen activists disrobed in front of the ministry of justice in the Tunisian capital on Wednesday to protest against the jailing of a Tunisian member of the Ukrainian feminist group, quickly attracting an angry crowd.
The trio, one German and two French, were hustled away by police in Tunis after revealing naked torsos scrawled with "Breasts Feed Revolution". Wearing just jean shorts, the women chanted in English "Free Amina" and "Women's spring is coming" as onlookers tried to cover them.
Tunisian woman Amina Tyler scandalised society by posting topless pictures online in March in a Femen-inspired protest in which she scrawled "my body is my own and not your honour," on herself. She was later taken into hiding by her family after conservative preachers issued death threats against her.
The 19-year-old said last month she wanted to do one last topless protest before she left the country to study journalism in France and was arrested on 19 May in the religious centre of Kairouan where an ultraconservative Muslim group had hoped to hold a conference before it was banned by police.
Tyler was charged with carrying a dangerous object, apparently a canister of pepper spray, and is due to appear before a judge on Thursday.
The women in Wednesday's protest climbed up on the gates of the justice ministry until police pulled them down and hustled them shouting into the building as an angry crowd gathered, many of them lawyers there for work.
"This is against our religion," said Fatima Zahaouadi, a young woman wearing the black robes of a lawyer but without a conservative headscarf. "For these women to take off their clothes as part of freedom of expression is against our religion and the traditions of Arab-Muslim Tunisian society."
The crowd surrounded the area where the women were being held and when the activists were transferred to a nearby building the crowed surged forward before being fended off by police.
"The ministry of justice is not a house of ill repute," said Fawzia Dridi, an angry bystander.
The crowd also attacked journalists attempting to cover the event as well as lawyers who tried to protect the reporters. Police took several journalists into custody to take statements from them as witnesses before releasing them.
Tunisia's prosecutor's office later announced the women had been questioned at Tunis's main police station before being charged and their embassies have been informed. The French consul visited the women and said they were in good spirits.
Lawyers said they could be charged with an attack on public morals or threatening public order, offences that could carry up to a year in prison.
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