Bus shelter bikini ads covered with paint in 'censorship' attacks

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Street adverts featuring women in bikinis have been defaced in apparently targeted attacks.

Most show women in swimwear by chain store H&M but another features a couple kissing to promote the Bollywood film Kites.

Residents in affected London areas suggested the images, which were daubed with black paint, could have been targeted by religious conservatives or radical feminists.

Police have not linked the campaign to any religious group but the damage is similar to attacks in Pakistan on billboard ads branded "un-Islamic" and "obscene" by hardliners.

Today women's rights and anti-censorship activists joined Muslims and Christians to condemn the vandals.

Police said 14 bus shelters around Tower Hamlets, including many in Limehouse, were hit last month.
Residents told of similar damage in Waltham Forest. One said: "It seems to be a dedicated group who obviously have some serious issues with these adverts."

After finding the black paint could be easily removed, the vandals switched to a sticky, tar-like substance which is harder to scrub off.

Agnes Callamard, of Article 19, a London-based organisation combating censorship, said: "While one may dislike some ads and find them offensive, this cannot be a basis for blacking out' the picture."

Avedon Carol, of Feminists Against Censorship, said: "The idea that somehow the image of women being sexy spreads all sorts of horribleness is reactionary and anti-women."

The bus shelters are provided to Transport for London by advertising firm Clear Channel, which said the content was regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority.

A spokesman confirmed a rise in graffiti attacks and said each one cost £130 to put right. Dr Shaaz Mahboob, of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, said: "Many British Muslims wouldn't go to the beach in a bikini but would never think it's their right to impose their values on others like this."

Pastor Henry Dixon, of Poplar Baptist Church, said: "If people feel that a poster is wrong then they should complain to the ASA. Causing criminal damage is not right."

An H&M spokeswoman said: "A picture can be interpreted in many different ways. The interpretation is always in the eye of the beholder."

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