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A Brazilian model blasted the country's legal system after being arrested arrested for walking her dog topless earlier this year.
Caroline Werner, 37, was charged with public indecency after being spotted walking across the street from a Balneário Camboriú beach in May. The model is now pushing for Brazil's constitution to give women the same liberties as men when it comes to being shirtless in public.
“Unfortunately in my country, even though the Constitution ensures gender equality, in practice this does not happen, I cannot have the same freedom and I feel coerced into doing so by this system and the repressive interpretation of the law,” Werner told the Brazilian outlet G1 earlier this month (h/t the New York Post). “What should be natural for both genders ends up being denied to one of them in an arbitrary and repressive manner.”
Werner said she took her top off while walking her dogs home from the beach and was approached by several officers before being detained, locked into a van and transported to a police station where she was given a blouse to cover up. The 37-year-old claims she was violated her due process rights as she was prohibited from calling her family or lawyer.
“When I arrived at the police station, they took me to a dark cell, where I was handcuffed to the cell railing, without the right to communicate with any family member, friend or lawyer,” Werner told G1. “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.”
Werner, who owns a bikini line, said she's never had an issue being topless while traveling internationally and was appalled at the incident in her home country.
“In many countries, it is a completely normal practice,” she said via G1. “A woman’s body is not objectified and hypersexualized.”
Werner received a summons for committing an obscene act and was released, however, could face three months to a year in prison if found guilty.