Cannes 2022: Semi Naked Ukrainian Woman Protest against Rape [Pictures/Videos]

A woman was removed from the red carpet show at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival on Friday after she protested in light of the rape and other acts of sexual violence committed by the Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian women.

Why Did The Woman Protest? 

The incident reportedly took place yesterday at the 75th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival in France. A video surfaced online where was seen a naked woman being dragged off by the security forces from the red carpet show. The woman protested and tried to raise her voice in the context of the horrific sexual and physical abuses the Ukrainian women are going through due to the Russian forces.

Yesterday’s red carpet show marked the premiere of the movie “Three Thousand Years of Longing” directed by George Miller. The incident took place in the presence of several other celebrities. One of the bystanders at the show alleged that the female protestor came in front of the camera where she started stripping down and knelt on her knees. The woman had painted her body in the colors of the Ukrainian national flag. It was also seen that the woman had written “stop raping us” across her chest and abdomen and “scum” on her back.

What is Scum?

Scum is an activist group based in France and was a progressive feminist manifesto that was published during the 1960s. Shortly after the video of the woman’s protest went viral, the official Twitter handle of “Scum” came up with an explanation of the incident.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has made the global headlines for a lot of wrong reasons. Not only did both sides have seen a large number of casualties, but many reports have also claimed about the human rights violations the Ukrainians are facing every day because of the Russian government and soldiers. It has been claimed that Ukrainian women are being subjected to sexual abuse, rape, and torture to remain alive. Any woman trying to resist is getting shot by the Russian soldiers on that very spot.

This is not the first time however that women are becoming the sexual victims during an ongoing war. The Chinese and Korean women were also raped and molested for several years under the rule of Imperial Japan during the time of the second world war.

The Cannes Film Festival has also seen a few protests before, most notably in 2018 when 82 women protested demanding equal rights between men and women in the film and entertainment industry.

Although any Russian representative or journalists were banned from attending the festival, a movie backed by Russian businessman and politician Roman Abramovich debuted on yesterday’s show.