From:
http://themoscownews.com/society/20110215/188421219.htmlUkraine’s famously naked women’s political movement, Femen, would like to pay a visit to Russia – yet its members fear that local cops will not take too kindly to them.
According to Moskovsky Komsomolets, which recently ran an interview with key members of the movement at their favourite Kiev hang-out spot, Cupid café, Femen would like to stage a provocative protest on the territory of the Russian Federation, but “there is a fear that they won’t get away with a mere 24 hours in detention for something like that”.
Femen have a history of involvement in the political relationship between Russia and Ukraine. “We categorically oppose the politics of the current Ukrainian government,” Femen leader Anna Hutsol told Moskovsky Komsomolets. “We don’t like the suppression of democracy, taking cues from the ‘big brother’ inside the Kremlin.
“We don’t have anything against Russia and Russians – on the contrary, we love them. But we’re against the idea of the Ukrainian government ‘bending over’ for Medvedev and Putin.”
Bared breasts and column inches
When Vladimir Putin visited Ukraine last year, Femen members staged a colourful protest that featured highly personal rhetoric against the Russian PM. At the time, Hutsol told reporters that opposition groups in Ukraine differ from Russian opposition groups, because they have more freedom.
Femen, whose stated mission is to motivate Ukrainian women into political action by initially shocking them, are famous for baring their chests and other body parts for a number of causes. Members have protested everything from the lack of public toilets in Ukraine’s capital to sex tourism. In Ukraine and elsewhere, opinions on the movement remain sharply divided – but it’s generally agreed that, meaningful or not, Femen’s protests are hard to ignore.
Russian human rights activist, Lev Ponomaryov, is a fan of the movement, but believes that a visit to the Russian Federation would hardly benefit the women of Femen at this time. “It would be dangerous for them to come here,” Ponomaryov said. “Local security services would not take kindly to them – they could be set up.”
Attention for attention’s sake?
Meanwhile, some in Ukraine believe that Femen should adopt a more coherent political strategy before attempting to represent Ukrainian women abroad. “They need to become consistent first” said Ukrainian feminist, translator and popular blogger, Mariya Dmitriyeva. “In the past two years, they have not managed to come up with a clear political message, which is why they seem to be grabbing attention for the sake of attention alone.
“They have one message for the Ukrainian population and another message for the foreign press. To locals, they’ll say they don’t identify with feminism, because the word carries stigma – but then they’ll go on to tell some foreign journalist that they’d like to eventually become Europe’s biggest feminist movement. The one thing they’re consistent on is trying to get publicity.”
Dmitriyeva believes that in the “joyless” Ukrainian political landscape, the fact that Femen are attempting to raise important issues, particularly those related to women’s rights, is very important. However, she dislikes their methods and is critical of the fact that both the foreign and local press often treat Femen as the only active women’s organisation in Ukraine.
“They’re the only women’s movement that’s currently being paid attention to in Ukraine, which paints a distorted picture,” Dmitriyeva concluded. “People act as though Femen were the first to address sex trafficking, for example – when this issue was first being raised in Ukraine 20 years ago.”