The international women’s rights movement FEMEN staged a high-profile protest at this year’s International Women’s Day march in the French capital, Paris on 8 March. An estimated 250,000 people took to the streets across France, with 120,000 people in Paris alone, according to the feminist organisation Grève féministe (Feminist Strike).
Around 100 activists marched topless in Paris with US, European or Russian flags painted on their chests, along with a swastika and the words “fascist epidemic” drawing attention to the increasing right-wing shift in many countries. The activists carried black smoke torches, and many painted their right arms red and drew Hitler moustaches on their faces. They chanted slogans such as “Fascist epidemic, feminist response” and “For a feminist Europe, not a fascist one”. They also staged a performance targeting prominent figures, with one activist shouting out “Heil Donald Trump, Heil Vladimir Putin, Heil Elon Musk”, with the others repeating the slogan and raising their right arms in the Nazi salute.
FEMEN is a feminist activist group founded in Ukraine in 2008 by Anna Hutsol, Oksana Shachko and Alexandra Shevchenko. The organisation moved its headquarters to Paris in 2013 after facing harassment and legal pressures in Ukraine. They are known for their provocative topless protests aimed at challenging patriarchy, gender inequality and various forms of oppression, including from religious institutions, political corruption and sex trafficking. Their slogan, “I came, I stripped, I won,” reflects their bold and confrontational approach.
In November, FEMEN staged a protest outside the Louvre in Paris on 24 November, painting the slogan ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ on their chests in French, Kurdish and English, to demand an end to the violence against women ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November.
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