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Women in Brazil staged a topless protest - to fight for the right to go topless.

As well as turning heads, the group hoped to turn attention to a Brazilian law which prohibits women from going topless at the beach as well as highlight cultural issues surrounding the freedom of women's bodies.

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In a city where little more than a thong bikini is seen as modest and old fashioned, a woman showing few centimetres more skin in shedding her bikini at the beach is treated as a scandalous act of promiscuity that attracts unpleasant attention.

In bearing her breasts to the bank-holiday Rio crowds, campaign organiser, Ana Paula Nogueira, hoped to encourage people to see the act of going topless as something pure and natural.

(Image: Getty)

"We believe that this is something that is going to take a while. It is something cultural, it will take a while to change, but there is no point in us sitting there doing nothing.

"So we try to make it playful, involve people so that this is received in a natural way and not seen as a protest," Nogueira told Reuters TV on Tuesday.

The campaigners celebrated the growing support for the movement, with a number of men and women taking part.

(Image: Reuters)

"This is a space for everyone to share, to be happy," said topless campaigner Barbara Calmo.

"So come with us and take it off and participate in the topless movement. In Brazil there is a law which prohibits going topless at the beach, whilst in other countries lots of people are free to take off their tops," Calmo continued.