CNN: Why topless protesters will hound Islamic leaders

By CNN.

Published April 22, 2013 at 8:13 pm

Femen activists stage a march in Paris where they have opened a headquarters in a move to recruit members in their fight against the discrimination of women.

Photo by Associated Press

CNN Editor's note: Inna Shevchenko is one of the leaders of international movement Femen which uses topless protest as a way to raise the profile of women's rights. She says Islamist leaders enslave women by asserting control over their sexuality -- but in a counter-argument, freelance writer Bim Adewunmi says Femen's attitude is naive and foolish at best.

(CNN) -- For the past five years now, we here at the international women's movement Femen have been waging an active campaign of resistance to the patriarchy in various corners of the world.

We have been bringing the world the simple idea of women’s liberation by means of sexual emancipation as expressed in highly visible acts of political protest. We believe that the enslavement of women began with the enslavement of their sexuality, so we therefore consider it legitimate to use their liberated sexuality as a symbol of women’s worldwide liberation.

We divide the patriarchy confronting us into three basic parts. First, dictatorship, as a tool for enslaving women. For this reason we are a democratic movement.