Amina Tyler has told us (via Femen) where she’s been and what’s been done to her.
…she was beaten, kidnapped and drugged by her family after posting pictures of herself baring her breasts online.
The 19-year-old was also forced to endure a humiliating “virginity test” in the aftermath of her protest, which inspired women’s movement Femen to organise a“topless jihad” in support of her.
Speaking to Femen leader Inna Shevchenko from an undisclosed location via Skype, she told her harrowing story, but was adamant she will continue her struggle for women’s rights in the Muslim country.
Assuming she can. Her relatives seem to be determined to treat her like a piece of livestock.
Amina, who was threatened with stoning after posting the images with the words “Fuck your morals” written across her chest to the Femen-Tunisia page, told how she was beaten by her uncle and cousin and taken to a remote village where she was given powerful sedatives.
She spoke of being examined by her aunts in the family kitchen to see if she was still a virgin – describing it as a “horrible” experience, “against my freedom”.
She added: “Every day they were teaching me morals. They forced me to read the Koran. I am an atheist.
“They put their hands on my head and started to read the Koran over my head, that was horrible.”
She tried to escape once but they caught her.
Inna Shevchenko of Femen wrote a reply to Muslim Women Against Femen.
You say we talk about you because we are irritated only by bearded men who pray five times per day.
We have enough bearded bastards in our part of the world, the beard of Russian patriarch Kirill [a Russian Orthodox bishop who is a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin] would win a competition of ‘holy beards’ and some people even say that he is so connected to the God so he is praying 30 times a day.
Sisters, we don’t care how many times your men are praying, but we care a lot what do they do in between.
And then they get to the internationalist part.
You claim that we bring you our idea from our part of the world and you don’t need it.
The idea of freedom doesn’t have anything to do with nationality or colour of skin.
There is no set of human rights for Europeans and another for Arabs or Americans, it’s universal. And we are going to keep fighting for all of us, for our right for freedom.
We are going to fight with you, with Arab women, like Aliaa Elmahdy, [Egyptian internet activist], like Amina and I hope like you.
Just what I said. Human rights are universal; that’s the whole point of them. That’s not “imperialism.”
“Humiliating virginity test”… or “rape” as it is also known.
I realise I’m making an assumption that she was forced to be naked and have her genitalia examined. Perhaps they just waved a magic crystal over her head or something. But I suspect not.
embertine:
I suspect the Holy Book glows red.
embertine, I suspect you are correct. And I know women here in the US that have had that happen to them (crazy parents, but I’m always shocked when a hospital goes along with it).
Makes me rage….Is there some way to get help to Amina to get out of that country?
I knew it. She wasn’t being protected at all; she was being abused.
Humans rights. Trumps everything else. This shit needs to end.
Yeah, the whole business about her family “protecting” her seemed way too optimistic to be true. I hope she manages to escape for good and stay safe. 🙁
I saw the video, and it paints a terrible picture, where Amina’s family are concerned. I really hope she is in safe-hiding. She plans to do more protests before she will consider leaving Tunisia. I hope that she won’t be used as media fodder, and then dumped, as can happen. I wish her all the best.
Exactly! A lot of people need to learn that, and try not to be too selective and snobbish and insular in their human rights activism, by hiding behind banners, such as the “imperialism” one as an excuse. Human rights are human rights are human rights. I know that folk have their own favourite activist campaigns, but, blimey, when they completely deny that other types of “universal” human rights exist, and are so vociferous and vocal over their own campaigns … you’d begin to think that they had a hidden agenda.