Protest eines britischen Väterrechtlers sorgt für Debatte

"Deeds not words," exhorted Emmeline Pankhurst of the Suffragette movement.

Father of two and HGV driver Bobby Smith, 32, might have been inspired by that motto over the weekend as, in the name of New Fathers for Justice, he hijacked the sculpture of "A Real Birmingham Family" by the Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing.

Wearing’s work outside the Library of Birmingham depicts two young women, one heavily pregnant, holding hands with two little boys. The figures take their form from two real sisters who are both single mothers – Emma Jones, 27 and her sister Roma. The boys on the plinth are those women’s own children – Kyan, who is four, and Shaye, five.

Affronted by the absence of a father figure, Bobby Smith stuck photographs of himself and his two daughters, Ellie, seven and Mollie, 10 onto the figures in the sculpture and threw a sheet over the remaining mother. He said: "There's nothing wrong with single mothers but this statue is saying one person can do both jobs, and I believe kids are always better off with both parents in their lives."

Hier geht es weiter mit Neil Lyndons Artkel für den britischen "Telegraph". Und hier berichtet der Väterrechtler Bobby Smith selbst über seine Erfahrungen mit seinem Protest und den Reaktionen darauf.