With the words “God is woman” painted across her naked chest, the activist squeezed though a hole in a fence surrounding the nativity scene.
The woman rushed to the manger in the center of the square, grabbed the Jesus figurine, and raised it above her head while shouting slogans against the Catholic Church. However, a Vatican guard was quick to block her. The activist was quickly covered with a coat and handed over to police.
The Jesus figurine was unveiled by the Pope during the Christmas Eve mass on Wednesday.
The action was in protest against “the centuries-old Vatican stance on women`s rights for own body and reproductive function,” the group`s webpage states. FEMEN has announced an anti-clerical "Massacre of the Innocents" campaign, calling for the stealing of Baby Jesus from churches around the world.
FEMEN is a radical feminist protest group founded in Ukraine in 2008. The group is now based in Paris. The organization has become internationally known for its topless protests against religious institutions, sexism, homophobia, and other social, national, and international issues.
“The maniacal desire to control women`s fertility is a common trait of many religions, National Socialism, nationalism and other antediluvian, anti-humanist ideologies. Abortion is sacred,” the group says on its site.
This is not the first time that FEMEN has targeted Vatican City. On November 14, several topless women protested in St. Peter`s Square against Pope Francis’ visit to the European Parliament in
Strasbourg. Their slogan that time was “The pope is not a politician, god is not a magician.”
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