Three members of the radical activist group Femen were arrested Wednesday for protesting in front of the Justice Ministry in Tunisia bare-breasted.
The European women were demonstrating against the incarceration of a fellow Femen member Amina Tyler, a Tunisian woman who shocked her community by putting up topless photos online in March, with the words, "my body is my own and not your honor," written on her chest.
Tyler's father was forced to put her in hiding, after conservative religious leaders threatened to kill the 19-year-old girl. She said last month that she would perform one final breast-baring protest before she left to study journalism in France. The Associated Press reported that she was arrested May 19 in the religious center of Kairouan. Police took her in for carrying a dangerous object, as she allegedly was holding a canister of pepper spray.
She will go before the judge on Thursday to receive her sentencing.
Meanwhile, in front of the Justice Ministry, the trio of two French women and one German walked up to the entrance of the building wearing coats, the Associated Press reported.
They then shed their clothing, wearing only denim cut-off shorts, brandishing naked torsos bearing the message, "Breasts Feed Revolution."
"Free Amina!" they chanted, as a crowd of people, horrified by the display, tried to cover them up. "Women's spring is coming!"
The women then climbed up the gates of the building, while police pulled them down, shouting for them to stop. A mob of people, many of them legislators who were just arriving at work, gathered around the protestors.
"This is against our religion," Fatima Zahaouadi told the AP. She wore long black robes indicating she was a lawyer, but did not don a traditional headscarf. "For these women to take off their clothes as part of freedom of expression is against our religion and the traditions of Arab-Muslim Tunisian society."
"The Ministry of Justice is not a house of ill repute," another bystander named Fawzia Dridi said, enraged.
The crowd of people accosted journalists who had assembled there to cover the protest. Other lawyers, who were trying to protect the various reporters and photographers, also got caught in the crossfire.
The demonstrators were arrested amid the scuffle and taken to the main police station for questioning. Their respective embassies were informed of the event. They could face charges of attacks on public morals and threatening public order, which might give them up to a year in prison.
Femen is well-known in Europe for nude protests, including demonstrations in front of Notre Dame Cathedral and protests against The Pope.
But Wednesday's rally was the first staged in the Middle East, and many are unhappy with the unruly, seemingly disrespectful nature of the protests.
Many feminists in the Middle East have deemed their display despicable, saying that not only was it insulting to local religious and cultural norms, it might detract from pressing concerns, like gaining equality.
Femen members stood their ground, however, and in an e-mail to the AP, wrote that Tunisia must surrender Islamic tradition and allow female liberation to blossom.
"Femen is announcing the women's spring that [is] starting in Tunisia," the feminist group wrote.
