The performance, by the activist group Femen, was timed to coincide with International Women’s Day on Sunday. Some 40 protesters wearing plastic coveralls, rubber gloves and protective glasses – but nothing on their chests bar slogans, as is their shtick – invaded Paris’ Place de la Concorde.

Warning: Explicit images

Chanting feminist slogans, they fired purple smoke sticks and doused the ground using portable sprayers to wash away what they called the ‘patriarchal virus’. The action was apparently themed after the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, but the activists were more interested in fighting an epidemic of violence against women.

Then Paris police arrived at the scene and ushered the protesters away.

Femen is a group of women’s rights activists, originally based in Ukraine, who use public exposure of their breasts to draw attention to their slogans and cause. Since their inception over a decade ago they have gone international, and their presence is strongest in France, where the group’s co-creator Inna Shevchenko lives. Femen advocates the empowerment of women and has been targeting politicians and institutions which it perceives as pillars of patriarchy.

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