Feminist activist group FEMEN is no more, according to one of the group’s founding members, who told Ukrainian media that the protest group’s membership has petered out.
In the interview, Iana Zhadanova said: “FEMEN doesn’t exist any more. It was over in 2015. Everyone’s just left. The team as it used to be does not exist any more.”
“Now FEMEN is not an organization but a style of protest,” she added. “The style we created while the organization was there, they just adopt it.”
However, a Tweet put out by the radical organization’s official Twitter account seemed to refute these claims.
The controversial protest group was founded in Ukraine in 2008 before relocating to Paris. It became famous for its provocative protests, which involved female activists baring their chests, often daubed with slogans, to highlight issues such as prostitution, women's and LGBTQ rights, fascism and religious intolerance.
‘Grab patriarchy by the balls’ was the slogan borne by one protester, as she showed the world exactly what she thought of Donald Trump. The activist grabbed the crotch of a waxwork statue of the then-president-elect at a Madrid unveiling in early January.
Unimpressed by what the group saw as barriers being put in the way of Ukraine’s “European future”, one topless protester mimicked taking a sledgehammer to a section of the Berlin wall on display in the capital Kiev in November 2016.
One of Femen’s favorite targets was France’s far-right party, Front National, lead by presidential candidate Marine Le Pen. In May 2016, four bare-chested, gold miniskirt-wearing activists were arrested for protesting outside the venue of a banquet for the party.
As former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived in Lille in February 2015 to begin his trial for allegedly aiding and assisting in the prostitution of seven women, three activists with “pimps, clients, guilty” and “your turn to be f**ked” emblazoned on their chest greeted him outside court. They were arrested but later acquitted.
Two women baring the slogan “Nobody makes me submit” across their chests, lept onto the stage at a Muslim conference in Paris, in September 2015. The two Imman’s speaking at the time left the stage, while security removed the protesters, kicking one as she lay on the floor.
In April 2016, two activists staged a topless protest outside a Moroccan court in which two men were being tried for alleged homosexuality. The two women were arrested and later deported for attempting to “damage public morals”.
In protest at the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in January 2016, one Femen activist ‘hung’ herself from the Debilly Bridge in Paris with an Iranian flag painted across her chest. The mock execution was in protest at the roughly 800 people put to death in Iran each year.
A protester sporting a t-shirt saying "End ECB dick-tatorship" interrupted a televised address by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, in April 2015. Josephine Witt lept on to the table in front of Draghi, showering him with confetti before being removed by security at the Frankfurt venue.
During a visit to the Hannover Messe tech show in April 2013, Russian and German leaders Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel were ambushed by bare-chested protesters shouting obscenities. It was not the first time President Putin was targeted by the group, most notably during elections in March 2012 and Brussels later the same year.
In May 2013, Femen launched their first public protest in the Arab world. Three young activists protesting outside the main courthouse in Tunis were arrested following scuffles with authorities. The three were later sentenced to four months in prison for indecency and attacking public morals.
As Former Italian Prime Minister, media mogul and bunga bunga fan, Silvio Berlusconi was casting his vote at a Milan polling station in February 2013, a number of Femen activists accosted him, shouting ‘Basta Berlusconi’ (‘Enough With Berlusconi’).
Along with Vladimir Putin and Marine Le Pen, another favorite Femen target is the Catholic Church. In November 2014, three protesters, clad in nothing but leather mini-skirts and boots, dropped to their knees and began simulating lewd acts with the most sacred of Christian symbols, the cross. Earlier that year, Eight Femen activists stripped down in Paris’ iconic Notre Dame Cathedral to mark Pope Benedict XVI's resignation.
Back in 2012, Femen staged a nude protest outside Warsaw's National Stadium, shouting anti-tournament slogans and dousing fans with foam from fire extinguishers. The group were protesting the tournament as they said it would lead to an increase in prostitution in Ukraine and Poland, the host nations. In what would become typical of future protests, the activists were arrested within minutes.
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