4 April 2013: International Day to Defend Amina; she represents us

[ToneBender]

Drugged and Beaten?

[Archaewok1]

Apparently Amina is currently fine, but says she fears for her life and wants to get out of Tunisia:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/07/amina-tyler-topless-tunisian-protester-fears-for-life_n_3033352.html#slide=2299073

[Danee]

Tunisia woman flees family captivity, vows to go topless in protest


TUNIS: A Tunisian woman who sparked controversy after exposing her breasts online in protest of how Arab women are being treated said this week she would go topless again as part of Ukrainian women’s rights group Femen continues its women’s rights push for the Arab world using nudity.

Amina Tyler, who had been drugged, beaten and held captive by her family, vowed to continue to use her body as a symbol of protest for women’s activism in a Skype conversation with Femen, as reported by AFP.

“I don’t want to leave Tunisia before doing a topless protest. I will do a topless protest then I will leave,” she said in the video posted on Femen’s Facebook page.

Tyler described being grabbed by a cousin from a cafe in Tunis, forced into a car and taken first to her aunt’s house and then to her grandmother’s house, where she was subjected to a virginity test and made to read the Koran.

She said she was given “strong doses of medicine” to send her to sleep and make her docile.

Women in Tunisia are having mixed reactions to the use of nudity to push women’s issues in the country. One university student in the capital, Tunis, told Bikyanews.com that nudity has become a “final straw” for promoting the rights of women in the country and across the region.

“We have been beaten, abused and continued to be silenced,” began Hind, a 21-year-old, adding that “our bodies seem to be the only thing that we have left to show the world that we want change.”


Earlier this month, Femen was seen dropping their shirts in what they said was a show of liberation and protest against the ongoing crackdown of women’s rights in the Arab world two years on from a series of revolutions that shook the region.


But the naked protest has also led to a backlash by female activists in the Middle East and by Muslim women across the globe, who continue to say they do not need to get naked to show strength and push for their rights.


The protests were held in numerous European capitals, including Paris, Berlin, and Kiev, to spotlight the case of Tunisian activist Amina Tyler.


Tyler caused controversy last month when she posted online photos of herself with the words “My body belongs to me” and “Fuck your morals” across her breasts.


Police in Kiev immediately detained two young female activists who wrote “Free Amina” on their chests when they arrived at a local mosque.


“We’re free, we’re naked, it’s our right, it’s our body it’s our rules, and nobody can use religion and some other holy things to abuse women, to oppress them,” Femen member Alexandra Shevchenko told AFP at a small protest at a Berlin mosque.


But Muslim women are lashing out, saying that one need not take off their clothes in order to be heard. They have dubbed FEMEN, “sextremists” and said that Muslimah Pride Day” was organised in response to Femen’s self-declared “Topless Jihad Day.”


From: [size=78%]
http://bikyanews.com/87491/tunisia-woman-flees-family-captivity-vows-to-go-topless-in-protest/[/size]

[Daft]

http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/04/16/amina-i-will-continue-the-struggle-in-tunisia/

[softynude]

good to hear that she is finally free  , however it's very disapointing when you hear some Tunisian women say that what she's doing is wrong , my full respect to Dr Raja Ben Salma a famous writer and also an Academic psychoanalyst she appeared the last weekend in a TV interview and declared her full support to Amina and mentioning that she's not crazy and called all the citizens to support and join the cause of Amina

[ToneBender]

good to hear that she is finally free  , however it's very disapointing when you hear some Tunisian women say that what she's doing is wrong , my full respect to Dr Raja Ben Salma a famous writer and also an Academic psychoanalyst she appeared the last weekend in a TV interview and declared her full support to Amina and mentioning that she's not crazy and called all the citizens to support and join the cause of Amina

she's not free - she's on the run. Big difference. Huuge difference.
I'm pulling for her but she's still in danger.
When she makes it to France I'll breathe a sigh of relief.

[softynude]

good to hear that she is finally free  , however it's very disapointing when you hear some Tunisian women say that what she's doing is wrong , my full respect to Dr Raja Ben Salma a famous writer and also an Academic psychoanalyst she appeared the last weekend in a TV interview and declared her full support to Amina and mentioning that she's not crazy and called all the citizens to support and join the cause of Amina

she's not free - she's on the run. Big difference. Huuge difference.
I'm pulling for her but she's still in danger.
When she makes it to France I'll breathe a sigh of relief.

that's true Amina stills under a big threat , but I meant by "she's free" that she got rid of her family  and escaped from her captivity , you know her family were intended to put her into a psychological clinic , she didn't have any access to internet and deprived even from using her mobile phone . so I think she is in safer place now surrounded by trusted friends who can offer good help and now she can  communicate with world and express herself freely...I think if she leaves the country now she would loose her herioc image she'd better stay and many compatriots wouldn't let her down.

[ToneBender]

Easy for you to say. You're not the one they're going beat, rape, burn or stone to death.
If she chooses to stay and fight so be it - if she wants out (she's done enough already) I'll buy her a fuckin plane ticket.

[chrisw91]

A little behind but I have signed. Still need another 35'000 though. I hope it reaches the target

[ToneBender]

So after all that Amina is in prison for carrying an 'incendiary object' (in this case: pepper spray) and so are 3 european FEMEN women who went down to protest her incarceration.

[ToneBender]

Femen member Amina Tyler on trial in Tunisia Amina Tyler went into hiding for two months after posting topless online photos Continue reading the main story

A prominent member of the feminist group, Femen, in Tunisia has gone on trial in the city of Kairouan.

Amina Tyler is charged with carrying an "incendiary object". She appeared in court smiling, dressed in a white robe.

Conservative groups accuse her of insulting the city of Kairouan, a religious centre.

Ms Tyler scandalised some in her home country in March by posting photos of herself topless, with the slogan "my body is my own" written on her torso.

Femen, a Ukrainian group, is famous for its topless protests.

On Thursday, some 200 protesters, many religious conservatives, protested outside the court, chanting slogans against Ms Tyler, accusing her of attacking the city and insulting Islam.

Ms Tyler emerged from hiding earlier this month in Kairouan, where she wrote "Femen" on a wall near the city's main mosque.

That was on the same day as authorities banned a group of ultra-conservative Muslims from holding their annual conference in Kairouan.

Ms Tyler was detained by police amid clashes and tear gas as an angry crowd gathered.

Her lawyers argue that a 19th-Century charge of carrying an incendiary object should not apply to a can of pepper spray she says she had been given by a foreign journalist for her own protection.

Lawyers saying they represented the city called for her to face the more serious charge of threatening public security. They were turned down by the judge.

 
The trial has drawn attention partly because it is set against the background of tensions in Tunisia, following the overthrow of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

There has since been an increase in the prominence of ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafists, who campaign for greater public piety in Tunisia.

Femen describes itself as "fighting patriarchy in its three manifestations - sexual exploitation of women, dictatorship and religion".

Ms Tyler's fellow activists around the world have staged topless protests calling for her freedom.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22714130