So three women in Kazakhstan were arrested on Sunday and thrown into police vans whilst wearing lace underwear on their heads and screaming ‘freedom to panties!’. Yes, you heard us right.
The women protesting against a law which has banned the import, production and sale of synthetic lace underwear in the Eurasian Union – the trade bloc made up of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The ban, which was first outlined in 2010, will mean lingerie outlets will have to bin all of their synthetic lace by 1 July when the law comes into effect.
The ban has sparked a consumer outcry and ‘panty protests’ have sprung up over the weekend in Russia and Kazakhstan. The law will outlaw any underwear containing less than six per cent cotton, and analysts have estimated thataround 90% of products would disappear off the shelve. That's right - 90% of the pants available to buy in Kazakhstan contain less than 6 per cent cotton.
The was essentially brought in with the best intentions and was attempting to protect consumers from cheap materials that could have negative health impacts [read: give you thrush], but the women of Kazakhstan aren't interested. Russia’s lingerie market is estimated to be about £3 billion pounds, so we’d hazard a guess that the law will likely be over turned by Russia’s trade industry, but as the three girls who were arrested were whacked with a £60 fine we hope they get the whole thing sorted otherwise they might not be able to actually afford panties – synthetic or otherwise.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.