International Young Naturists Organisation
Naturist Resources => Blogs, Videos, Articles about Naturism/Nudity => Topic started by: Daft on March 22, 2013, 09:34:41 pm
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4 April 2013: International Day to Defend Amina; she represents us
(http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/files/2013/03/amina.jpg)
UPDATE: There are reports that Amina has been seized by her family and possibly the civil police and been hospitalised in a psychiatric hospital.
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19 year old Tunisian Amina who posted a topless photo of herself bearing the slogan “my body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour” has been threatened with death.
Islamist cleric Adel Almi, president of Al-Jamia Al-Li-Wassatia Tawia Wal-Islah, has called for Amina’s flogging and stoning to death saying Amina’s actions will bring misfortune by causing “epidemics and disasters” and “could be contagious and give ideas to other women…”
We, the undersigned, unequivocally defend Amina, and demand that her life and liberty be protected and that those who have threatened her be immediately prosecuted.
On 4 April 2013, we call for an International Day to Defend Amina.
Amina represents us all.
On the day and beyond, groups and individuals can join in by highlighting her case, posting topless photos of themselves and their activism on social media sites, signing a petition, Tweeting #Amina, writing letters in her defence, and more.
On 4 April, we will remind the Islamists and the world that the real epidemic and disaster that must be challenged is misogyny – Islamic or otherwise.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/03/21/4-april-2013-international-day-to-defend-amina-she-represents-us/ (http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/03/21/4-april-2013-international-day-to-defend-amina-she-represents-us/)
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:3145 hope everything works out scary stuff.
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Its sad to see that in the 21st century, many cultures still view women's bodies as property. It is also sad how immature people can be about the exposure of a woman's skin. It is also sad that a'l this outrage is in Tunisia which is one of the more secularized nations in the region.
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The Huffington Post has an article on Amima and the controversy surrounding her courageous actions http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/amina-tyler-femen_n_2949376.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/amina-tyler-femen_n_2949376.html)
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So, how about we get back on track here and stop defending the people who want to stone Amina to death.
4 April 2013: International Day to Defend Amina; she represents us
(http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/files/2013/03/amina.jpg)
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The online petition (http://www.change.org/petitions/petitioning-tunisian-government-amina-must-be-safe (http://www.change.org/petitions/petitioning-tunisian-government-amina-must-be-safe)) is almost reaching 100,000 signatures. At least this case seems to be getting a great repercussion worldwide.
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All posts debating the pros and cons of various religions have been removed. Come on folks, religious debates are a no go zone here. Stick to the topic as has been requested
I signed the petition. Women's rights and safety should not be de-railed into religious debate.
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Petition signed... It'll be interesting to see what some social-networking sights do about topless photos (namely the book of face)... M'lady and I will be posting in support of Amina, and the general naturist cause on April 4th!
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All posts debating the pros and cons of various religions have been removed. Come on folks, religious debates are a no go zone here. Stick to the topic as has been requested
I signed the petition. Women's rights and safety should not be de-railed into religious debate.
Thank you Toddo . . . I was hoping that a mod would shut it off. I know, I'm guilty . . . just can't walk away from an argument.
Petition signed after some trouble getting into the blogsite.
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Another article about this case: http://www.theurbannudist.com/2013/03/28/the-topless-tunisian-rumours-surrounding-amina/ (http://www.theurbannudist.com/2013/03/28/the-topless-tunisian-rumours-surrounding-amina/)
And a good resource for newer infos about Amina: https://twitter.com/maryamnamazie (https://twitter.com/maryamnamazie)
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Dailymotion - Watch, publish, share videos (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyoaod)
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signed.
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Why an International Day to Defend Amina?
Below is a compilation of questions I have been responding to on 4 April for various journalists:
Why an International Day to Defend Amina?
When I heard that 19 year old Tunisian Amina had been threatened with death for posting a topless photo of herself bearing the slogan “my body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour”, I knew we had to act.
Within 24 hours, a number of well known individuals and groups joined in a call to mark 4 April as an International Day to Defend Amina – both to unequivocally defend her and demand her safety and freedom whilst also demanding the prosecution of the Islamist who threatened her. Whilst Amina had done nothing wrong, the police aided her family in detaining her against her will and stopping all forms of communication with her friends and FEMEN rather than prosecuting those who detained and threatened her. She is still being held against her will and did not turn up at school this Monday as she was meant to. In a rare interview with a journalist, she said she was stressed but had no regrets.
In the last interview she gave before she was effectively kidnapped, she said women in Tunisia are ready for change:
“That women have reached the height of self-determination: we no longer obey any authority, neither family nor religious. We know what we want and we make our own decisions.”
This is the wonderful woman we stand up for and with on 4 April.
Signatories to the call include: Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, Egyptian Nude Photo Revolutionary; Caroline Fourest, Writer and Journalist; most recent film: “Our Breasts; Our Arms”; Darina Al-Joundi, Lebanese Actress and Author of “The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing”; Deeyah, Music Composer and Filmmaker; most recent film “Banaz: A Love Story” about an honour killing; Elia Tabesh, Iranian Women in Support of Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar; Inna Shevchenko, FEMEN Spokesperson; Kareem Amer, Egyptian Blogger; Kian Azar, Communist Youth Organisation; Marieme Helie Lucas, Algerian Sociologist and founder of Secularism is a Women’s Issue; Mina Ahadi, Spokesperson of International Committee against Stoning and International Committee against Execution; Nadia El-Fani, Tunisian Filmmaker; most recent films “Neither Allah nor Master” and “Our Breasts; Our Arms”; Richard Dawkins, Scientist; Safia Lebdi, Co-founder of Neither Whores nor Submissives; and Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi Writer.
Are nudity and Islam completely incompatible? Do you see a time in which women in North Africa and the Middle East will be more free to show their bodies? How do you see what she did in a country like Tunisia?
All religions have a disturbing view of the female body. Islam is no different. The perfect woman under Islam is invisible. Islam is only worse in many ways because of its access to political power via the far-Right Islamic movement. Sharia law and Islamic states legislate and impose misogyny and perpetrate the debased view of women.
Women in North Africa and the Middle East will be freer the more Islam is relegated to a private affair and Islamism is pushed back from the public space. Actions like Amina’s help to challenge Islamism at its very core.
Islamism’s obsession with women’s bodies and its insistence that women be veiled, bound, and gagged means that nudity breaks taboos and is an important form of resistance.
Nudity is the antithesis of veiling. Of course it is not the only way to resist Islamism and the veil but it is a very modern way of doing so. Islamists want us covered up, hidden, and not seen and not heard; we refuse to comply.
But nudity is not just a protest against Islamism and religious misogyny. It is fundamentally a protest against discrimination, the commodification of women, and the religious and chauvinistic culture built upon it – which is why it is on the increase and has been a part of the women’s liberation movement for some time.
Commodification relies on an objectified image that is separate from the reality of women’s bodies, minds and lives. This image is used to regulate, control and suppress. And this is what religion and pornography share, albeit in different forms. The actuality and frankness of women’s bodies as a form of protest challenges and upsets both.
Nudity is deeply humanising and revolutionary because it challenges the religious/pornographic view of women’s bodies and reclaims a tool used for women’s suppression. Nudity outrages and offends because of this very challenge.
And it is taboo-breaking in the most progressive sense of the word since progress often comes as a result of offending deeply held and misogynist views and sensibilities. What makes nudity radical and progressive is also that it gives a practical response.
Whilst Islamists represent the voice of reaction and barbarity, Amina and those like her pose the greatest challenge and represent modernity, humanity and women’s equality. That is why in so many ways Amina has hit a nerve with so many people. She represents us all.
Do you have some advices for Tunisian woman? How shall they behave after this and taking in consideration the current political and social context?
I do think the tide has turned against Islamism. The revolutions in the region, the female-led resistance in many parts herald the end of Islamism’s unbridled rule. Tunisian women, all women and men, everywhere, must defend Amina and real freedom and equality.
As writer Caroline Fourest said: The call to Free Amina and Free Tunisia are the same cry. No country can be free without women being free. Irrespective of the political and social context, people everywhere want to live like 21st century human beings and not in the Middle Ages.
In this fight, Islamism will not leave the public square and scene quietly. But the women’s liberation movement will be what will put it in its place. No fight however is pre-destined. It depends on human will and intervention. Human solidarity, therefore, across borders and divides, can have a real impact on people’s lives. For one, I hope it can free Amina and in the process help free our world.
Can you tell me more about the 4th April – the International Day to Defend #Amina – and what are you hoping others will join you in doing?
Many have already joined in; large numbers of topless photos have been posted in her defence, the petition has already gained 106,000 signatures, and groups and individuals are organising for 4 April.
There are also many actions planned including in Germany, France, UK, Sweden, Norway and elsewhere. Here are some of the actions that have already taken place.
Islamist cleric Adel Almi called for Amina’s flogging and stoning to death because he said Amina’s actions would bring misfortune by causing “epidemics and disasters” and “could be contagious and give ideas to other women…”
On 4 April 2013 – International Day to Defend Amina – we will remind him, the Islamists and the world that the real epidemic and disaster that must be challenged is misogyny – Islamic or otherwise.
On 4 April we will breast them!
Long Live Amina!
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/04/02/why-an-international-day-to-defend-amina/ (http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/04/02/why-an-international-day-to-defend-amina/)
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(http://s11.postimg.org/fetsq37xb/DSCF2597.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/fetsq37xb/)
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This article has been updated with the highlights from a number of protests around the world that took place on April 4th: http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/04/05/our-day-defend-amina/ (http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/04/05/our-day-defend-amina/)
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Drugged and Beaten?
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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 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/07/amina-tyler-topless-tunisian-protester-fears-for-life_n_3033352.html#slide=2299073)
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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/ (http://bikyanews.com/87491/tunisia-woman-flees-family-captivity-vows-to-go-topless-in-protest/)[/size]
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http://youtu.be/ZhLWKG0pedA (http://youtu.be/ZhLWKG0pedA)
http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/04/16/amina-i-will-continue-the-struggle-in-tunisia/ (http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie/2013/04/16/amina-i-will-continue-the-struggle-in-tunisia/)
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good to hear that she is finally free :2345 , 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
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good to hear that she is finally free :2345 , 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.
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good to hear that she is finally free :2345 , 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.
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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.
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A little behind but I have signed. Still need another 35'000 though. I hope it reaches the target
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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.
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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 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22714130)