Anti-Femen Topless Jihad Day: Muslim Women Slam 'Racist' Feminist Activists

A group of Muslim women has launched a counter-campaign against the Topless Jihad Day staged by radical feminist group Femen and accused the Ukrainian-based movement of anti-Muslim prejudice.

Student activists in Birmingham have called on Muslim women to protest against Femen's "counterproductive" topless campaign as part of a Muslim Pride Day.

"Muslim women have always stood up for themselves - we don't need Femen and their saviour complex," Muslim Women Against Femen (MWAF) told IBTimes UK.

MWAF'S Facebook page was flooded with pictures of girls and women wearing the hijab or naqib while holding banners that read: "Nudity does not liberate me" and "Femen stole my voice."

"Femen does not represent a large number of Muslim women although they claim they want to 'free' us from our religion. They argue for liberation and speak for us but do it in the wrong way," MWAF representatives told IBTimes UK.

"For them, the more you strip the more of a feminist you are - that's Western feminist ideology. That's not liberation for us, but that doesn't make us anti-feminist."

Femen's Topless Jihad day featured bare-breasted protests across Europe in support of Tunisian activist Amina Tyler, 19, who received death threats after posting online images of herself semi-naked.

Femen has recently carried out a number of high-profile protests across Europe, including topless marches in Paris and an ambush of Silvio Berlusconi.

"We fully support protests against inequality, sexism and racism but we believe that in order for them to be effective, they need to be culturally specific," MWAF said.

Love women, love their rights

"If you love women, love their rights and love autonomy then it's about time Femen took aim at male supremacy and patriarchy, not Islam. Islamophobia and racism are contrary to women's liberation and feminism."

MWAF said that Femen was a victim of Western media's biased portrait of the Muslim world, which fails to look past the hijab.

"We, as Muslim women, do not feel the need to go nude. We have a voice and we have a breadth of talent to get our views across," the group said.

"The spotlight has shifted to the likes of Femen using controversial and offensive tactics. Meanwhile, women across the world - Muslim or otherwise - have always committed to the struggle against patriarchy.

They added that women's rights were advocated by the Prophet Muhammad in his teachings, or Hadith.

"Femen is essentially saying that Western feminism knows best for women all over the world," MWAF said.

"They use the image of the 'oppressed' Muslim woman to justify protests outside mosques and insulting the role of women in Islam.

"The assumption they promote is that we are subjugated creatures controlled by men, who need to be liberated by a group of perfectly groomed white women posing nude and using shock tactics."

"We see Islam as a form of empowerment and a sense of freedom, so we don't need Femen to speak for us. They have stolen our voice."