Femen protester storms Vatican and gets herself arrested
Some people will do anything to get their point across when it comes to advocating for something that they believe in, even if it means storming Vatican City in St. Peter’s Square with your shirt off and trying to snatch a baby Jesus statue.
This is exactly what a woman, Alisa Vinogradova who is a member of Femen a women’s advocacy group attempted to do on Christmas Day only to get herself arrested and taken away by police.
Femen is a Ukrainian-French radical feminist organization that was founded back in 2008 and they are very well known for their topless protests in support of women’s rights.
According to the advocacy group, the protest was to bring awareness to the “Vatican’s infringement of the rights of women to their own bodies.”
The incident went down only two hours before the Pope delivered his annual Christmas message to the world.
What Happened
Vinogradova, was seen running towards the life sized nativity scene, with police in pursuit and was briefly actually able to snag the little Jesus statue before being tackled to the ground by police.
As police hand cuffed the woman and dragged her away, she could clearly be heard screaming: “God is woman” over and over.
Police have not announced if they will be pressing charges against the woman.
Not the first protest this Christmas
Christmas Days’ protest was not the first such protest over the Christmas holiday as on Christmas Eve, Femen protesters stood in the middle of the nativity display, opening their cloaks to show the words “#METOO” and “ASSAULTED BY THE CHURCH” written across their topless bodies.
Taking to Facebook, Femen wrote the protest “represented a modern, free Virgin Mary, who speaks out against the patriarchal religious institutions and their centuries old practices of assault and oppression of women.”
“We must continue to denounce all forms of violence against women committed everywhere, from the Film Industry to The Vatican,” Femen added.
“…FEMEN encourages women to follow the example of the movement and kidnap babies from religious denominations, thus, stating their right to use of their own body. A child is not from a god, but from a woman. For a woman is God,” the statement continued.
