A Brazilian bikini model who is facing a year in jail for going topless near a beach, is demanding to know why, when the country’s constitution guarantees gender equality.
The criticism
Caroline Werner, 37, criticized the ‘double standards’ that allow men to be shirtless in public while lashing out at Brazil‘s ‘patriarchal, violent culture’ that would not prosecute a man for the same offence.
Her story
The businesswoman, who owns her bikini brand, says she was roughed up by police and chained to the bars of her prison cell after she was seized by the Municipal Guard while walking her dog in the southern city of Balneário Camboriú.
What really is gender equality?
‘Unfortunately, in my country even though the Constitution ensures gender equality, in practice this does not happen,’ Werner told Brazilian news outlet G1.
‘What should be normal for both genders ends up being denied to one of them in an arbitrary and repressive manner.’
Werner received a summons for ‘committing an obscene act’ after removing her shirt at a beach and tying it around her waist before she started walking her dogs in May this year.
Article 233 of the Penal Code
Article 233 of the Penal Code describes the charge as ‘performing an obscene act in a public place, either open or exposed to the public.’
However, the law does not define an ‘obscene act.’
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‘When crossing the street to leave the dogs, I was approached by the Municipal Guard in a completely arbitrary and disproportionate way,’ Werner said.
‘They arrived already putting my hands behind me and handcuffing me.’
The cops provided a blouse for Werner to cover her breasts, took her to a police station, and left her handcuffed against metal bars in the ‘dark’ jail cell.
Werner alleged the police violated her due process rights by not allowing her to place a phone call to her family or a lawyer.
‘I spent more than an hour in that situation, unable to speak to anyone and, even though I had asked for I was denied my right to speak to my lawyer several times,’ she said.
