Feminist Fears For Life After Topless Protest In Tunisia

A feminist fears for her life after staging a topless protest on Facebook.

The 19-year-old Tunisian activist, known only as “Amina,” exposed her breasts in photos posted to the social network last month. The words “My body belongs to me” were scrawled across her bare chest. The act is an especially defiant gesture in a country led by a moderate Islamist party, Ennahda.

Since her protest, the woman has reportedly received death threats directed at her and her family, including warnings that she could be stoned.

After going into hiding for several weeks and fueling speculation about her whereabouts, Amina reappeared in an interview with French cable station Canal+ on Saturday. Telling the network she “must leave Tunisia” and that she hoped to study journalism abroad, she said, “I’m afraid for my life and the lives of my family.”

Amina’s emergence over the weekend followed an earlier TV appearance in mid-March on a Tunisian channel. With her face blurred, the activist said her act was inspired by Ukraine-based group FEMEN. She declared: “We FEMEN, we have the courage to cry out our demands to liberate women.”

Though the feminist fears for her life, she insisted to Canal+ that she would keep her FEMEN principles “until I’m 80.”

Founded in 2008, FEMEN is famous for holding bare-breasted protests for women’s and gay rights. It campaigns against sex tourists, religious institutions, international marriage agencies, sexism, and other social, national, and international topics. By October 2012, the organization claimed it had about 40 activists in Ukraine and another 100 — presumably including Amina — who had joined their protests abroad.

The group held an International Topless Jihad day last Thursday in support of Muslim women.