On December 20, 2013, I staged an individual topless pro-choice action at the Madeleine Church in Paris with the Femen group. This Ukrainian feminist movement founded in 2008 in Kyiv is known for its topless actions. The activists write slogans on their bodies to denounce violence against women and gender inequalities, through sexual exploitation, systemic oppression by religious institutions, and dictatorships.
With my hair adorned with a blue veil topped with a flower crown, I positioned myself on the church altar and brandished two pieces of beef liver, a parodic symbol of the aborted baby Jesus. Painted on my back was “Christmas is canceled” and on my chest the slogan “344th slut,” in reference to the Manifesto of the 343 initiated by feminists in 1971, when abortion was illegal, and who were then exposed to criminal prosecution.
In December 2013, in Spain, a bill by the Rajoy government planned to restrict the right to abortion. The text aimed to repeal the 2010 law making abortion legal until 14 weeks and 22 weeks in case of fetal malformation, to authorize it only in cases of serious danger to the woman’s life or physical/psychological health or rape.
At the same time, in Strasbourg, Parliament refused to recognize abortion as a European right. In Dublin, several tens of thousands of religious fundamentalists demonstrated in the streets against the right to abortion. In Texas, a law prohibited abortion beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy. Even today, this right is constantly being challenged. Particularly in the United States and Europe.
It was a silent and peaceful two-minute action, consisting of taking photos and whose sole purpose was to denounce the positions of the Catholic Church and its interference in women’s freedom to control their own bodies. I waited until the church was empty and took care not to interrupt a mass.
Nevertheless, the priest of the Madeleine filed a complaint against me for sexual exhibition and on December 17, 2014, when I was no longer part of Femen, the Paris Court of First Instance sentenced me to one month suspended prison sentence and ordered me to pay the Church 2,000 euros in damages and 1,500 euros in legal costs.
I am the first woman convicted of sexual exhibition in France.
I appealed this decision.
On February 15, 2017, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the first instance decision and my conviction.
I appealed to the Court of Cassation.
On January 9, 2019, I was definitively convicted by a ruling of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation.
I appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
After 9 years of proceedings, on October 13, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights ordered France to pay me 2,000 euros for “moral damage” and 7,800 euros in legal costs. The seven judges unanimously ruled that France had “Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
This personal fight, made possible thanks to my lawyer Tewfik Bouzenoune who fought by my side throughout these years, ends with relief and joy. The struggle will continue as long as necessary.
For years, I perceived nudity as a political or artistic tool. But this experience made me realize it was a struggle in itself. I never would have believed it possible to find myself caught up in such legal proceedings. In France. In the 2010s.
I realized that it wasn’t necessarily the content of my action that was the problem but simply the fact that my message existed. Society reduced my activism to a psychological dimension and invalidated my commitment by depoliticizing it. While I wanted to denounce sexist violence, my gesture was commented on and analyzed in a sexist way: a feminist fighting for the right to abortion is labeled an exhibitionist.
The last conviction for public indecency, a law replaced in 1994 by sexual exhibition, dates back to 1965 and concerned a young woman who had played topless ping pong on the Croisette in Cannes, a gesture devoid of political intent.
I was a feminist before this action, still am today, and will be tomorrow. Topless, I defended the same cause as when clothed, that of women. Everyone is free to develop their own vision of feminism and choose the mode of action that suits them best. Some organizations hold demonstrations and march in the streets, others write op-eds or distribute flyers. I’ve done all that and didn’t decide overnight to go protest topless in the street. It’s a reasoned and political decision aimed at raising awareness about social issues. And society’s reaction only confirms the validity of this mode of action. And actually, I don’t have to justify myself.
These trials raise in particular the question of equality between women and men in using their bare chests as an activist tool. Indeed, when environmental activists strip down to protest or when performing arts workers get naked to challenge public authorities, everyone understands that their approach is political and no one calls them exhibitionists. So why would it be different for women demonstrating to defend their right to control their own bodies? Are breasts a sexual organ? Are women’s breasts more “sexual” than men’s? Our biological differences do not justify male domination and a different application of our rights.
Yet in France, a topless woman in public space can be arrested and convicted while a man will not be. Her fault? Being a woman with a body and choosing to do what she wants with it.
PRESS COVERAGE
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