"Nudity does not liberate me and I do not need saving"

When radical feminists took their cause from Europe to North Africa, the outcome was a deepening of the divides they sought to break down. Social anthropology student Raffaella Taylor-Seymour argues for greater reflection about the meaning of freedom. When it comes to advocacy, protest and many kinds of charitable action, the start must be a long hard look in the mirror. Raffaella Taylor-Seymour Earlier this year the radical feminist group Femen turned its attentions away from Europe to North Africa, targeting vast swathes of the Arab and Muslim world with its uncompromising messages. Up until this point the protestors, who dub themselves as "sextremist", had focused their activities on Europe and primarily on issues affecting white European women. Emerging in the Ukraine around five years ago, Femen made its name with its own brand of attention-grabbing publicity. Images of its topless protests, nipples blurred, appeared in media throughout the world and, to some extent, conformed to passively-held assumptions of what "radical feminism" might look like.