- Caroline Werner was arrested for being topless in public while she was walking her dogs in Balneário Camboriú, Brazil
- The businesswoman has questioned the fairness of Brazil’s constitution for allowing men to bare their chest in public while barring women from doing so
- Werner was fined for committing an obscene act and faces between three months to one year in prison or a fine if she is found guilty
A bikini model is questioning the fairness of Brazil’s legal system after he was detained for being topless in public.
Caroline Werner, 37, was handcuffed and taken to a local police station earlier this year when she was seen walking her dogs while exposing her breasts across the street from a beach in the southern city of Balneário Camboriú.
The businesswoman, who owns her bikini brand, now wonders if Brazil’s constitution applies equally to women and men because men are allowed to walk in public with their chests exposed while women are prohibited from doing so.
‘Unfortunately, in my country even though the Constitution ensures gender equality, in practice this does not happen,’ Werner recently told Brazilian news outlet G1.
‘I cannot have the same freedom and I feel coerced into doing so by this system and the repressive interpretation of the law.
‘What should be normal for both genders ends up being denied to one of them in an arbitrary and repressive manner.’
Caroline Werner told Brazilian news outlet G1 that the country’s constitution does not equally apply to men and women after she was arrested and received a summons for being topless in public while she was walking her dogs near a beach in the southern city of Balneario Camboriu in May
Werner, who owns her own bikini brand, alleges that the police violated her due process rights by refusing her access to a phone to call her family or lawyer
Caroline Werner removed her shirt and tied it around her waist while she was at a beach in Brazil before the took her dogs for a walk when was stopped by the Balneario Camboriu Civil Police
Werner admitted to being out in public in other countries with her breasts exposed and is utterly dumbfounded that she got in trouble for doing so in the South American country.
She was at a beach and removed her shirt and tied it around her waist before she started walking her dogs.
‘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 the ‘dark’ jail cell metal bars.
Werner alleged the police violated her due process rights by not allowing allow 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.
Werner faces between three months to one year in jail or a fine if she is found guilty
She could be sentenced from three months to a year in prison or fined if she is found guilty
Werner received a summons for committing an obscene act and was released after an hour.
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.’
She could be sentenced from three months to a year in prison or fined if she is found guilty.
The case is being handled by the Santa Cantarina state prosecutor’s office, which offered her a plea deal.
Werner said the incident was overblown, especially on social media, where videos of her being topless surfaced.
‘What happened to me, the abuse of authority and judgment by society, demonstrate how the interpretation of the law itself reflects gender conduct dictated by patriarchal, violent culture, in relation to the control of female bodies,’ she said.