A video from Paris showing a group of women stage a topless protest to highlight gender-based violence is being shared with a false claim that Kurdish women undertook a topless protest against wearing the burqa.
BOOM found that the women are not Kurdish women but belong to various ethnicities and are part of a women's rights group called FEMEN. The group founded in Ukraine but based in France, is known to organise controversial topless protests against various human rights violations, especially against gender-based crimes.
The video shows several women standing topless, holding placards with slogans drawing attention to violence toward women. Some women in the video are also wearing a black netted veil over their head, which they remove to chanting iconic women's rights slogans like Zan Zendegi Azadi and 'Femme, Vie, Liberté' both meaning Woman, Life, Freedom.
The video is being shared mocking the women with a sarcastic caption claiming, "Kurdish women in Paris demonstrated for freedom wearing black sacks/burqas, carrying freedom posters in many languages."
(Original text in Hindi - पेरिस में कुर्द महिलाओं ने काले बोरे/बुर्के से आज़ादी के लिए प्रदर्शन किया, जिसमें वो कई भाषाओं में आज़ादी का पोस्टर लिए हुए थीं)
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The same claim is also being shared on Facebook.
FACT CHECK
We noticed that the women in the video were chanting slogans in French, in the forecourt of the Louvre museum in Paris. We also noticed the video carried the logo of news site Brut with a reporter from the outlet also doing a piece-to-camera in the video.
We ran a search using these clues as keywords and found the video on Brut France's Instagram account.
"We want to lift the veil on violence against women in the world." The action of @femen_france in Paris in front of the Louvre against violence against women worldwide. Report and images @remybuisine for Brut," the caption in French states.
The post dated November 24, 2024 also included the protest group's name and account. We went through FEMEN's Instagram account and found more photos and videos from the same protest.
FEMEN uploaded several photos from the protest with captions explaining that this was a protest against silencing of women's rights globally.
None of the posts by the group specify that the women in the protest were Kurdish. A statement on the protest put out by the group states, "100 FEMEN activists from several countries used one in Paris, and independently brought that speech to all women oppressed by theocracies, wars and dictatorships. In this political act, FEMEN makes the Louvre building—which is known as a shrine to the cultural forces of the elite—as a place of revolutionary resistance. We stand in solidarity with all the women and girls who suffer violence in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Sudan, Libya and many other countries."
WHO ARE THE FEMEN?
A radical feminist group born in Ukraine in 2008, FEMEN is now an global women's rights organisation based in France. Anna Hutsol, credited as one of the founders of the group started it as a protest against illegal sex tourism in Ukraine. The group whose signature protest style is topless protest has gained attention in the last few years with members allegedly facing threats and being publicly assaulted in some cases.