Women go topless on Ipanema to raise awareness of breast cancer in Brazil

A group of women removed their bikini tops on Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach on Sunday to raise awareness of breast cancer in Brazil and challenge a ban on topless sunbathing.

A conviction for violating the law banning topless sunbathing could land the women in prison for between three months and a year.

The “Topless in Rio” project drew about a dozen women, who showed up without their bikini tops to urge people to pay more attention to a disease that is a “taboo topic” in Brazilian society.

Project founder and president Ana Paula Nogueira told EFE that the event’s theme, “No Woman Should Live without Breasts,” was aimed at “providing more freedom and making the feminine body natural” by going without a top.

“The idea behind going bare is to lay bare a series of other issues, other prejudices. We use going topless to draw attention to matters that people should really be concerned about,” Nogueira said.

Viviane de Oliveira Mello, one of the women who participated in the event, underwent a mastectomy several years ago and said the event was important in drawing attention to a topic that should not be a taboo and helping make the disease less traumatic for women.