10:30 08.02.2013

FEMEN activists protest female circumcision in Africa at Berlinale

1 min read

Three topless women ran onto the "red carpet" during the opening ceremony of the 63rd Berlin film festival on Thursday evening, an Interfax correspondent reported.

However, they did not manage to reach the entrance to the Berlinale Palace film theater, where the ceremony was held, or get into the spotlight of television cameras as the security promptly removed them from the area.

The women turned out to be members of the Ukrainian feminist movement FEMEN.

Oleksandra Shevchenko, one of the protesters, said the women were trying to protest female circumcision, which is widespread in Africa.

"One girl is circumcised every 19 minutes," Shevchenko told Interfax.

Shevchenko also said the police had kept them in a police vehicle for about an hour. "They treated us very correctly and released us. They didn't even take us to a police station," she said.

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