Vatican City: A young Ukrainian women rights
activist sneaked past security and partially stripped in front
the Vatican`s Saint-Peter Basilica just after the Pope`s
Sunday Angelus.
The blonde activist, initially wearing tight jeans and a
see-through black tulle top, struck provocative poses against
the dramatic backdrop of the basilica and the papal
apartments, where Benedict XVI had given his traditional
blessing moments earlier.
Legs splayed, she brandished a black placard demanding
"Freedom for Women" and then took her top off, according to a photographer on the scene.
Italian police labouriously subdued the topless activist,
who was still kicking and screaming as they dragged her away
from the papal enclave under the bewildered gaze of faithful
and tourists.
She belongs to a Ukrainian women`s rights group called
Femen, which campaigns against sexism and whose topless
tactics have attracted increasing public attention in recent
years.
The group was founded in Kiev in 2008 to combat sex
tourism, prostitution and sexual harassment targeting female
university students in Ukarine.
Their previous stunt was just a few blocks away
yesterday, when naked activists with their busts painted in
the red, white and green colours of the Italian flag joined a
mass protest against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
PTI
