Wow, I can’t believe that my weekly comments on FEMEN will be coming to an end. Over the past 11 weeks I have thoroughly enjoyed researching the FEMEN protests and expanding my knowledge of certain controversies. For this post I’m going o discuss something at the beating heart of FEMEN: their call for secularity.
If you recall, I’ve mentioned this theme in posts 2, 4, and 6 and I will reiterate that secularism is ingrained into the manifesto of FEMEN:
“FEMEN Ideology: Atheism […] FEMEN’s Objectives: church – by putting these institutes through subversive trolling to force them to strategic surrender. […] FEMEN’s Requirements: to universally and completely separate the church from the state and to prohibit any intervention of the religious institutions in the civic, sex and reproductive lives of modern women.”
FEMEN is an atheist organization and regards religion as a patriarchal institution that inserts itself too frelye into politics and choices for women. They have primarily targeted Islam as an extension of its Sharia law and the Catholic Church. On November 25th, Pope Francis will speak to the European Parliament and over the last week or so FEMEN has spoken out against this event. They see this as a move on the part of the Pope to move his influence into the political realm… a realm that should not include religion. FEMEN took to two different forms of protest. The first involved a large audience; members were guests on an Italian political debate show and took this time to advocate against the Pope’s speaking engagement with the EU Parliament. They see the dangers in the intersection of church and state as a possible threat to human rights and deconstructing the patriarchy. They call upon like thinks to join their protest stating, “God is not a magician, Pope is not a politician.” Their second protest was a follow up at St Peter’s square in the Vatican with members sticking a wooden cross up their butts under the mantra (as per FEMEN’s coverage of the protest) of “keeping religious morals together with Pope ‘in private place’, illustrating it by putting catholic cross in the holy feminist ass!”
In full disclosure, I am secular Jew so the Pope hold little meaning to me in terms as an influence of religion. Though this is true for me, it is not for a vast percentage of the global population and I’m sure we all can recognize that there has been quite a bit of corruption, scandal, and abuse within the Catholic Church for some time now, but for many people Pope Francis offers a signal of change within this fractured institution. He has voiced his consideration of evolution, homosexuality within the religion, and other reforms. I don’t know how much of this can be taken in full seriousness or if he is appealing to the massed with lip-service… I guess time can tell. From a secular standpoint, I’m leaning toward the views of FEMEN; there is no place for religion in politics. Yet, I can appreciate a dialogue between world leaders. The Pope holds no political office and the Vatican is an autonomous state, but this position of power gives way for great influence. There is potential for a conversation about human rights; both the government and Pope can do a deal to aid in populations in need. This must be considered before we condemn the visit. It should also be pointed out that communication between world governments and Pope isn’t a new thing. If the conversation turns toward a religious cause or agenda, I’m sure more than FEMEN will have something to say and in that case the cause of secularity should be promoted.
In conclusion I think FEMEN kicks butt. I may not always agree with their tactics or beliefs, but for feminism to puncture popular media and society in the way that FEMEN has made it able to is truly amazing. Their organization has over ten international branches and they are able to tackle so many issues through their permeation into public forum. They emulate warriors in their abrasive yet effective application of sextremism into their protests and continue to protest even while police push them to the ground and shackle them. FEMEN is extremely brave and worthy of praise from the feminist community. Though they are radical, they are effective and ultimately do more to promote their platform than the countless other active feminist organizations out there today.
*There will be provocative images posted on this blog each week, in coordination with the FEMEN protests I will be covering. Any direct quotes or images in this post were from www.femen.org , the official website for FEMEN. I do not own the rights to these images.
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