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TUNISIA

Topless women protest Tunisian rape at Venus de Milo

Members of the topless protest movement Femen rallied at the Louvre Museum in Paris on Wednesday and hung a sign on the Venus de Milo in support of a Tunisian woman allegedly raped by two policemen.

Published: 3 October 2012 13:21 CEST
Topless women protest Tunisian rape at Venus de Milo
Photo: Femen

Seven members of the group founded in Ukraine stripped off their tops — slogans such as "NO = NO" painted on their torsos — and stepped inside the barrier around the ancient Greek statue.

They hung a sign on the statue reading: "Rape me I am immoral", in reference to the young Tunisian woman facing possible indecency charges in connection with the rape.

Standing before the armless statue, the women chanted: "We have hands to stop rape" as tourists snapped away with their cameras.

After a few minutes, a member of staff arrived and removed their sign. The women left quickly without incident.

Protest organiser Inna Shevchenko, a 22-year-old who recently fled to France from Ukraine fearing persecution after cutting down a cross with a chainsaw, led six French women in the protest.

"We're here to… demand justice against rapists," Shevchenko said as she headed towards the exit.

The 27-year-old Tunisian woman is facing indecency charges with her fiance based on the testimony of the alleged rapists, policemen who say they took the couple by surprise in an "immoral position" just before the attack purportedly took place.

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FRANÇO

Topless Femen activists disrupt rally of Franco fans in Madrid

Bare-breasted protestors from the feminist activist group Femen on Sunday disrupted a rally of some 200 people in Madrid to mark the anniversary of the death of Spain's former dictator Francisco Franco.

Published: 18 November 2018 17:46 CET
Topless Femen activists disrupt rally of Franco fans in Madrid
Police officers subdue a member of feminist movement Femen as she protests against a demonstration marking the anniversary of the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in Madrid. Photo: AFP

Police said nearly 200 Franco supporters had gathered in the Plaza de Oriente where he addressed the throngs during his 1939-75 military dictatorship.

Many bore flags, umbrellas and ties with the colours of the Franco-era Falangist party.

Three women interrupted the rally, their torsos daubed with the words “legal fascism” and “national shame”, before being arrested by police.

Some in the crowd reacted angrily, trying to assault the women.

The pro-Franco event came as the socialist government of Pedro Sanchez draws up plans to exhume the dictator's body from the Valley of the Fallen basilica just outside Madrid.

The family of the late dictator, who died on November 20th, 1975, wants his
remains placed in the family crypt at Madrid's La Almudena Cathedral.

Sanchez wants to move the former dictator's remains to a more discreet spot where it will be harder for Franco followers to pay homage.

Pro-Franco demonstrator Dori Grande told AFP that people from both sides of Spain's civil war were buried at the Valley of the Fallen site, which was created ostensibly to reunify the country.

“This year more than ever, we have to defend our homeland, our history, because history is there. You cannot erase it,” he added.

The remains of some 37,000 victims of the civil war, both republican and nationalists, are buried at the Valley of the Fallen basilica.

But many of the families of the dead were not notified and the site itself was partly built by republican prisoners, some of whom died in the process.

READ ALSO: Spanish parliament approves exhumation of General Franco