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Paul Holmes · Lounge Wizard Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 1012

Yesterday, 16:27 | Yuliya Popova, Kyiv Post Staff Writer Print E-mail to a friend E-mail to an editorial Photo by Yaroslav Debelyi
Hurling mud at politicians for absurd and copious parliamentary predicaments has been a dream of many Ukrainians for a long time.

Flamboyant girls from the grassroots women’s organization Femen put this fancy to life on Independence Square last Sunday.

Stripped down to swimsuits in main party colors, they mud-wrestled each other, mocking the political struggle in Ukraine.

“Our political leaders got used to playing a game called ‘elections,’ said Anna Hutsol, the leader of Femen. “Therefore, we got an impression that they are trying to mask their political impotence in this way.”

Apart from social and economic problems stemming from political bickering, she drew attention to the cause of her movement – fighting sex tourism.

“They do nothing to stop a rapid growth of the sex industry in Ukraine,” she said, explaining why her organization slammed politicians in their new provocative show.

Smearing each other with mud from three buckets, none of the sexy contestants dared to claim victory.

The young women said that it just so happened in Ukrainian politics that winners were usually slain very quickly by the opposition unable to make it out of a vicious circle.

Femen’s mud-fight protest was the fourth erotically-flavored media event this year.

Prior to it, female campaigners dressed as nurses tried to “cure” foreign men from an affliction of using Ukrainian girls for sex.

They picked the Turkish embassy for their show based on the results of their research in September.

Having polled 1,200 female students from top Kyiv universities, they discovered that Turkish men have approached Ukrainian women with intimate offers more often than other nationalities.

The organization is throwing protests with a flair under a slogan “Ukraine is not a brothel.” In September, they laid out this phrase with their own bodies on the hills in front of the Cabinet of Ministers.

The unconventional methods of Femen raise questions about the group’s effectiveness and how they expect to achieve their goals.

The girls, however, respond to criticism saying that only naked (or nearly naked) shows can draw attention to the “beauty-for-sale” crisis in Ukraine.

They have no definitive plan of what will come next.

Hutsol suggested that foreigners crossing Ukrainian borders should be warned that prostitution is illegal in this country.

Her organization has called on politicians to revoke visas from those expatriates involved in sex trade.

Yet, from the last mud wrestling show at Independence Square, it seems that their pleas land on deaf ears.

With no action from the recently dismissed parliament, the Femen campaigners called on the people to vote against all in the snap election in December.