FEMEN "Topless Warriors" documentary w/ English subtitles

Good evening from the "Eyewitness".
Now we'll talk about feminists, who will surely appease even the most hardened chauvinists.
Sisters in the east weren't happy with just the "Slut Walk", but also removed their shirts.
Femen was founded in Ukraine to fight against sex trade and abuse of women.
Their weapon of choice is their sexuality - bare breasts.
Media loves them and gives them attention but is their message really understood?
Cossack women, revolt!
Zaporozhye is not a brothel!
Ukraine is only the beginning. We are going to go to Europe, America and other countries.
We'll create matriarchy and women's revolution.
We want every woman to have the right to protest.
Odessa is the mother of democracy!
Odessa is not a brothel!
We women have our beauty, allure and body, -
- our most important weapons and we will use them.
Protesting topless doesn't mean we are selling ourselves.
Zaporozhye is not a brothel!
Oligarks and the bourgeoisie are all criminals who will have to be dethroned and replaced with women.
We have to create a feminist revolution.
I'm not going anywhere!
Topless Warriors
She's Alexandra, 24 years old. A modern feminist, free and provocative.
Together with other two young women she founded Femen during the The Orange Revolution.
Media loves Alexandra.
Not because she has a degree on political economy, -
but because of the way she's showing her political awareness.
European feminists differ from us, -
- they don't use their bodies and sexuality to get to the goals that are important to women.
We use them and hope that in 20 years -
people will talk about feminists as beautiful naked women, -
not as butch, bald and tattooed women.
Alexandra has last worked in a call center -
but was sacked cause her boss didn't approve topless protests.
It didn't stop her as she is determined to change her homeland.
The parliament of Ukraine has very few women and the government has none.
A woman's salary is 70% from a man's.
If we won't get democracy in Ukraine there's no use talking about women's or men's rights.
Even we can't protest without democracy.
Earlier, protesting topless was banned, -
now we can't even protest wearing our "vinoks" (flower wreaths).
All Femen's protests have been forbidden.
We are Ukrainian women.
We are Femen.
We are the bitches of democracy.
Our duty is to protest.
Their antics might seem like shock treatment.
Here they are protesting against rich oligarks.
Oligarks have close relations to politicians, -
and Femen blames them of raping the political environment.
Hands off!
Our job is to go against dictatorship and totalitarianism in Ukraine, -
but we support everyone who wants to banish dictatorship in their own country.
We supported Egyptians and Libyans.
We protested on behalf of those who were fighting against dictatorship and totalitarianism.
Inna and Alexandra are on the core of Femen's 300 activists.
They are on their way to conquer their vast homeland.
Let's go!
A night train is a good place to spread the message.
What are you doing? Sitting on my place?
Femen? - What do you know about it?
Honestly speaking, I've seen on the internet once that it's some kind of a feminist organization.
And it's against... ... actually I'm not that interested.
A French person searched from the net with the word "Ukraine".
He wanted to know what kind of country it is, as he was coming to work in his embassy.
First results were addresses of brothels and sites where you can find a Ukrainian girl.
Sex tours, brothels and so on.
In Zaporozhye? - No, in Ukraine.
Femen was created to fight against prostitution and trafficking of women.
It fights against sex business with sex.
Here's a protest against a radio station from New Zealand that offers sex tours to Ukraine to meet young Ukrainian prostitutes.
Ukraine is not a brothel!
Every Ukrainian girl living in a big city will come in contact with prostitution and sex tourism cause studying is so expensive.
Families cannot afford to pay their studies and housing, so the girls will have to prostitute themselves to be able to live a normal life.
Prostitution and sex tourism have grown immensely.
Even the official reports say that the income from sex industry has doubled after the beginning of the financial crisis.
Now the women have arrived to the southern industrial city of Zaporozhye, to the birthplace of Cossack culture.
Soviet nostalgia still lives here.
The pride of the city is Europe's longest road, Lenin Avenue of 12 kilometers.
Femen has chosen the date carefully, it's the eve of the International Women's Day.
Women's Day is a big celebration in here, much bigger than in the west.
Discrimination is the biggest problem of Ukrainian women.
There are no women in the government.
When the president travels abroad he advertises Ukrainian women as prostitutes.
In the World Economic meeting in Davos, he told everyone to visit Ukraine in the spring when women will reduce their clothing.
So there's nothing else interesting in Ukraine than naked women.
From a humble hotel on the edge of the city, the women are on their way to a press conference.
There are no options cause girls don't have jobs.
You just have to accept the tulips, chocolates and other gifts, -
build a barricade from them and rise on it to take the power from men.
According to CNN, Ukraine is only known for Chernobyl, the Klitschko brothers and Femen.
And lard and horilka (vodka).
Ukrainian girls are no longer just beautiful prostitutes - even though they are beautiful and the fourth of Europe's prostitutes are Ukrainian.
Now it's also known that we are naked but protesting.
We can be naked, but we will never put out to any sex tourist.
They are being asked everything possible, including whether they are married.
Marriage is an obsession in Ukraine.
We are young, full of energy and want to devote our youth and pert breasts to building our country and monitoring the leading elite.
We will think about men, kids and family only after our breasts have started to sag.
They are being admired. The combination is new, beautiful women, straight talk, political slogans and bare breasts.
This is new in Ukraine. A new wave in our country's politics.
Ukraine is tired and a bit disappointed on all kind of organizations and parties. Men's, women's...
We have a lot of right wing and left wing parties.
This shocking show of theirs is a kind of an answer to the boredom of Ukraine's political life.
The protest in front of the town house of Zaporozhye is being strictly watched over.
Militsiya breaks the demonstration.
The women are handing out pictures of a sex tourist from New Zealand who is coming to town.
We are warning the people of Zaporozhye, that a maniac who wants sex is coming to town.
We are warning mothers with their children and all the people living here.
Is this his real picture? - This is his soul, what he really is.
We want to strike the sex tourism of Zaporozhye with our tits.
Back to Kiev.
Here, in the soviet style suburb, the women are getting ready for their next operation.
The Security Police is also interested.
Not because of feminism, but because Femen is against the leading powers.
Inna and Alexandra both originally came from the countryside to study in the university.
They live in a small apartment that costs 90 euros per month.
Cause of their activism, their families have been threatened.
My mom and dad disagree with what I'm doing and react to it differently.
I'm from a small town where they have lived all their lives.
They have difficulties accepting that I take part in protests, especially when they are topless protests.
They are afraid of how the militsiya will react.
They are afraid for my health and safety.
They are afraid for my health and safety.
It's important to them what everyone says about this and it scares them. My parents don't really understand activism.
Domestic violence is a problem in Ukraine.
The worst is that women don't get any help, nobody protects them.
We once saw in the police station how a little girl came to ask for help, afraid that her dad would kill her mom.
The militsiya said to the girl; "Come back when your mother is dead".
The officials and neighbors think that family violence is just a problem inside the family.
Evgenia lives in Odessa and has taken part in all the protests, even when it's -15 C degrees outside.
Evgenia is a 23 year old actress.
She doesn't understand the criticism, that baring breasts would go against the feminist ideology.
Odessa is not a brothel!
When we are protesting we write clearly to our breasts or placates what we are protesting against.
We do topless protests cause breasts are a weapon for us.
At first everyone will look at the breasts and the pretty girl but then they will read what it says on her breasts or on the placate.
I think the girls are too beautiful to be banned from showing what they've got and to make them cover their assets.
Because they can't have their voices heard otherwise, this is the only way for them to get the attention.
Many teachers want the girls to be pretty, so the girls will have to use baring shirts with open decolletages, short skirts and whatever they can.
The first merit for the young feminists was the uncovering of sexual harassment in universities.
Many professors were guilty of harassment.
During the scandal, a leader of a certain notable institute had to resign.
In all the universities of Ukraine, there are situations in where to get a good grade the teacher will ask for sexual favors or money.
Because Ukrainian girls are poor, they will agree on sex. It happens everywhere.
Media doesn't only love, it also hates the young activists.
Attention is guaranteed.
An interview in Radio Odessa blocks the phone lines.
I think one has to fight in all possible ways.
If talk is not enough, if terms like human rights, freedom and legislation is not understood and none of them works in this country and if there is even a one way to make them noticed, I support it with everything that I have.
Especially when these ways are bloodless and peaceful! - Absolutely!
As an expert I can say that Femen's ways may attract tourists from Europe to Ukraine and Odessa.
The results of protests may be the opposite.
It can be an advertisement for sex tourism in Odessa.
Thank you!
The press conference in Odessa is heated and it's not the first time.
Don't confuse, we are a grassroots movement.
I didn't interrupt you...
Ukrainian women shouldn't be selling themselves... - Then don't!
Don't be against of prostitution, it reduces sexual crimes.
Who listens to women?
Have you asked your sisters and daughters what they want?
Get out of here!
The problem is that when the economical situation of the country gets worse, sex industry starts to develop and lures especially under-aged girls.
That's the biggest problem of sex industry.
We try to prevent it with getting young girls involved in our movement, not on topless protests but on other activities.
Schools, universities and parents should be protecting the children and prevent them from getting into the sex business.
Unfortunately, the current people in charge are showing that they don't have the interest to solve this problem.
Ukraine will be hosting the 2012 soccer UEFA Euro cup.
Femen is afraid that it will make the sex tourism industry bloom.
We are not against the UEFA cup but against the prostitution involved in it.
All countries that have had big sporting events have experienced growth in sex tourism and prostitution during the events.
We don't want Ukraine to turn into a brothel in 2012.
Our politicians want to legalize prostitution to earn more money with our women.
We want a law that will criminalize the buying of sex.
The clients and sex tourists create these criminal relationships and we want them to be punished.
They must go to jail for their actions.
In a culture ruled by men, feminism is dividing opinions.
One of the criticizers of Femen is Oles Buzina, a known TV-person, author and the son of a famous KGB officer.
Buzina recently published a book called "Women, Go Back To The Harem".
For this, the women treated him with a cake to his face.
I think it's a great PR-campaign and a business idea that was born along the UEFA cup.
In my opinion, Femen is a concealed advertisement for sex tourism.
TV constantly playing a clip of half naked women protesting against sex tourism creates an idea for the western men, The French, Italian, English, Swiss men -
- that Ukraine is filled with sex tourists and naked girls and that one should definitely go there.
They buy a ticket to Ukraine and in here they notice how the situation really is.
Anna Gutsol, the chairman and the lead ideologist of Femen, brushes off the criticism.
She says that the worry about democracy and freedom of speech is real in Ukraine.
Ukraine doesn't have a tradition of citizen's protest. Demonstrations are usually paid and people who take part normally receive 5 euros.
With us, there are fewer people to take part, but they are there cause of the ideology.
When we are protesting in the Independence Square, people think that we are paid to do it.
Of course we have supporters, but we do get help from people who do not take part in our protests or ideology. We are completely independent.
The sex tourism and sex industry of Ukraine doesn't need advertising.
Our protests are understood in Europe outside Ukraine.
Even though we are naked, we are protesting and not inviting anyone to Ukraine.
We are using our sexuality, we decide ourselves when we will go naked.
The whole world knows that we are naked but won't sell sex.
Femen has existed three years.
Now it is heading towards a broader political context.
Femen is trying to get a breakthrough in the parliament ruled by men.
The ones in charge aren't listening to the nation. They don't hear what people are shouting at them.
That's why we want to wake the whole nation, not just some groups of people.
We want to get in to the parliament, so that we can sit there, show our breasts and have decisions made.
We will use all possible manners to get decisions which will benefit Ukrainian women.
The parliament ruled by men partly resembles a boxing arena.
Femen doesn't coax women to be inactive.
We invite women to stand up, strip and and win.
We have to take the power from men, build barricades, begin a war, a revolution and start a matriarchy to make the world a better place.
This demonstration is also general politics.
The women are protesting against nuclear power after the Fukushima accident.
Here in Chernobyl happened history's most severe nuclear disaster, already before the Femen activists had even been born.
The demonstration takes part in the Zone. Hundreds of thousands of occupants had to leave this place for safety after the accident.
One of the things people have made are the pyramids of Egypt, we've thought they'll be there forever cause they are over 3000 years old.
But things that last forever are Chernobyl and Fukushima, it will take over 50 000 for their pollution to disappear and we don't even know what happens to them afterwards.
The Chernobyl disaster happened 25 years ago but the Ukrainians didn't learn anything from it even though there were so many victims.
200 000 people died and more are dying.
The humankind hasn't drawn any conclusions with this.
Now we have Fukushima and don't know what comes after that cause people don't want to learn from their mistakes.
The young women are already looking towards 2017.
The breasts won't be yet sagging then and The October Revolution will turn 100 years.
These young feminists are planning it to become the celebratory year for the feminist revolution.