Topless Brazilian model walking dogs on beach accused of ‘obscene act’

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A Brazilian model could face up to one year in jail after she was arrested for walking her dogs while topless.

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Caroline Werner was charged with “performing an obscene act,” after she was detained in May for strolling down a busy beachside street in Balneario Camboiu, Brazil, with just a shirt tied around the waist of her shorts.

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Photos of the topless woman’s arrest went viral and she received a summons for “committing an obscene act.”

Werner put Brazil’s laws on blast for being too strict because in other countries, women legally can walk around sans shirts — including Ontario where a 1996 court of appeal ruling paved the way for women to bare their breasts in public.

“In many countries, it is a completely normal practice,” she told Brazilian news outlet G1, according to the Daily Mail. “A woman’s body is not objectified and hypersexualized.”

Brazil, on the other hand, “even though the Constitution ensures gender equality, in practice, this does not happen,” she continued.

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“What should be natural for both genders ends up being denied to one of them in an arbitrary and repressive manner,” Werner added.

She explained what happened after she decided to go topless while on the beach walking her dogs.

“When crossing the street to drop off the dogs, I was approached by the Municipal Guard in a completely arbitrary and disproportionate way,” Werner detailed.

“They arrived, putting my hands behind my back and handcuffing me.”

The model, who owns her own bikini brand, went on to say she was given a shirt to put on, thrown in jail, and denied the right to speak to a lawyer, despite requesting it several times.

“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.”

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The case is ongoing.

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Werner was offered a plea deal by the Santa Cantarina state prosecutor’s office, but she still faces a large fine and up to a year behind bars if she refuses.

“What happened to me, the abuse of authority and judgment by society, demonstrates 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.

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