If women have to get their tits out to make a point, so be it.

[MattSh]

As I write, there’s another topless photo doing the rounds on the internet. No change there, you might think, but believe me – this one is different. It shows a 19-year-old Tunisian activist, known only as Amina, her hair cropped close and her lips cherry red. She is smoking a cigarette and reading a book, frowning slightly, her eyes directed towards the page. Across her bare breasts, in Arabic, are these words: “My body belongs to me and is not the source of anyone’s honour.” It looks like art. In a second image, she defiantly flips off the camera with both hands and has the words “Fuck your morals” scrawled in black across her chest. There’s only one word to describe how Amina looks and it’s “badass”.

Both pictures were posted on the Facebook page of the Tunisian branch of the feminist protest group Femen, shortly before it was hacked and emblazoned with writings from the Quran. That was not the strongest reaction: the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Salafi cleric Almi Adel, somewhat predictably called for Amina to be stoned to death. “Her act could bring about an epidemic. It could be contagious and give ideas to other women,” he said, perhaps also recognising how badass Amina looks. In response, her family has reportedly placed her in a psychiatric hospital. At the time of writing, more than 86,500 people had signed a petition calling for her protection.

Adel is right to be afraid. Although the fight for equality hasn’t reached epidemic proportions yet, images of Femen protests have repeatedly gone viral. The internet’s ability to spread information quickly makes it a force to be reckoned with. Amina’s plight will not be ignored, especially not by us impressionable women, who are, after all, so susceptible to persuasion.

Those who condemn Femen for supposedly encouraging Amina to put herself in danger are guilty of the same crime as that of clerics such as Adel – denying a woman ownership of her body. The same can be said for the thousands of commenters with something to say about Amina’s breasts. But then that’s what it’s like, having tits: everyone’s got an opinion.

http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/society/2013/03/if-women-have-get-their-tits-out-make-point-so-be-it