A group of Swedish female activists is campaigning for women to be allowed to go topless in the country's swimming pools.

UPI mentions The Local reporting Tuesday the group, calling itself Bara Brost (Bare Breasts or Just Breasts), launched the protest following an incident in August involving two women who were refused to go topless at their local pool in Uppsala.

A spokesperson for Uppsala leisure center said there were three reasons for their refusal. "First, there is a security aspect, then there is a hygiene issue and finally there is what we call 'prevailing manners and customs'."

Astrid Hellroth, one of the campaigners, told Agence France-Presse: "Our aim is to start a debate about the unwritten social and cultural rules that sexualize and discriminate against the female body."

The campaign has already found support from some 50 women and 15 women have started acting on it by swimming topless in local pools.

The group has a blog which is linked to a Canadian sister organisation, the Topfree Equal Rights Association.

According to UPI, Bara Brost spokeswomen Astrid Hellroth and Liv Ambjornsson told Ottar, a magazine published by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education: "We want our breasts to be as 'normal' and desexualized as men's, so that we too can pull off our shirts at football matches."

Since the campaign was launched, the group has staged topless swims in two pools, both times to be refused. One pool refused on health and safety grounds.

The country's Equal Opportunities Ombudsman is to decide in November whether to back the women's cause.