Let Women Speak Free Your Face Event

[IwantToRetire]

We will all walk to Speakers' Corner at 2.00 and read out the testimonies of women who speak about the niqab. I have something visual planned so we can elevate the voices of women who exist in a fabric prison, often, of their familys construction.

On the day I will hand out copies of testimonies for women to read at the heart of Speakers' Corner. We need as many women as possible to attend. This is your chance to show you care.

From https://www.letwomenspeak.org/event-details/let-women-speak-london-free-your-face-2025-06-29-13-00

Had not heard about this, but now there are a number of responses to the event such as this one:

In Keen’s , Muslim women are portrayed as passive, voiceless, and trapped by family, culture, and male insecurity. The veil is a “fabric prison,” and the women behind it are posited as unable to speak, act, or even “feel sunlight on their skin” without male permission. Their desires, commitments, and beliefs are never considered on their own terms. Instead, they are rendered legible through the eyes, imagination and political desire of Kellie-Jay.

The few “testimonies” —attributed to women in the Middle East—were anonymous, unverified, and clearly cherry-picked. It’s hard to believe that Keen’s public pronouncements on “Islamism” elicit nothing but thank-yous and confessions of helplessness. Of course, as an activist and propagandist, she’s under no obligation to include
counterarguments or opposing views.These testimonies function as a moral shield, allowing Keen and Let Women Speak to deflect critique with the familiar refrain: “These aren’t my words…” Indeed, her X/Twitter feed is awash with anonymized grateful wards, caged in fabric. These women are cast as mute victims—unable to interpret or change their own lives—and, by implication, grateful and dependent on these liberated English roses to speak for them.

https://morbidsymptom.substack.com/p/veilface?

DM coverage https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14858363/Moment-womens-rights-campaigners-Niqab-veil-free-face-London-protest.html

(Sorry if there is a thread about this already but couldn't find anything. If there is one please post link. Thanks.)

Sounds like a vile event. What on earth motivates a bunch of white non-Muslim women to don niqab-face and campaign on this specific issue.

Where women are forced to wear the niqab, that should be tackled as a matter of coercive control, which is perpetrated by men of all communities, albeit in culturally shaped ways. Women who wear it without being forced don't need to be told by white women how to dress, any more than they need to be told by men.

I don't understand the comment above, PlasticAcrobat. In Iran women are legally obliged to weir veils, women go to prison for freeing their face, but women in the west are not supposed to campaign against it. Amnesty International does it, is that wrong too? Or is it the person you object to?

KJK is always accused of being a single issue campaigner and focused on the sex-gender conflict, she now highlights another anti women issue but that is also not ok?

So don't campaign for your own womens rights but also don't campaign for other womens rights? Does that sum it up?

I don’t think this is true in Iran. The headscarf is obligatory but not the niqab.

Through my work, I once spent an afternoon with a group of year 7 Muslim children. I was really shocked to see so many of the girls wearing a face veil. It was incredibly sad. Nobody can argue that those girls are able to consent.

My sil is a Muslim. She doesn’t wear a veil, but knows many Muslim women who wear one. She said that some of those women appear to consent, but actually lots of them really don’t have any other choice because of cultural expectations and pressure from their families.

KJK is always accused of being a single issue campaigner and focused on the sex-gender conflict, she now highlights another anti women issue but that is also not ok?

That's not true, she's been openly Islamophobic for years and criticised for it. It predates her work in the sex-gender conflict.

@PlasticAcrobat why have we reached a point where some groups in society have been placed in some kind of special position in which nobody can criticise them without being accused of racism or Islamophobia? Feminism is about fighting for all women, including Muslim women.

What has she said that is Islamophobic?

Afghan Women are being expelled from Iran and sent back to Afghanistan. They arrive at the border and aren't allowed to travel without a male escort, even in an emergency situation like getting to a hospital with a baby.
They aren’t allowed to work, to travel, to own land.

When I hear of oppression and ‘not being allowed to exist’, I think about these women.

Silent. Trapped. Condemned to starve.

Men who force women to wear the niqab are guilty of coercive control, which I think my previous post already said and which is hardly placing those men above criticism.
It is hard to see this event as anything other than white saviour mentality (at best) or a relatively agreeable-sounding pretext for expressing mistrust of Islam. I'm guessing that the real work of helping women who are being pressured in relation to Islamic dress happens without performative fanfare in the context of domestic abuse services and organisations. I don't doubt that such organisations are underfunded and struggling to help but that's another issue.

These women have to be anonymous because they would be punished, whipped, imprisoned, or even killed.

There is no world in which women being punished against an arbitrary standard of acceptable ‘modesty’ is a good one.

All religions have their faults, but not all of them can list encouragement to barbarism as one.

So if it wasn't KJK doing it, but a Muslim woman, would that be okay?

That's not meant to sound snarky, by the way

Standing in front of a bunch of white non-Muslim women, or in the context of a Muslim women's group advocating in their own cause?

Doing what she's doing. Taking Muslim women's anecdotes, and reading them out in public.

I just think some people will always be villified, whatever they do. Let women speak, but not that type and not on that topic.

Maybe she did it because she just wanted to help and get some attention for the plights of Afghan and Iranian women so that the domestic abuse services get some more funding and support? Why else would she do it? There is nothing else in it for her.

Did you watch the video. They aren’t all white and there are clearly women who appear to be Muslim in the crowd.

Is there a charity/organisation/service/helpline in the UK designed to help girls who don’t want to wear religious clothing because of family/community pressure?

Yet there are plenty of orgs to tell us about Islamophobia, to help us « educate ourselves » , to extol the virtues of multiculturalism, to tell us that niqabs and hijabs are fine and that they are ´personal’ choices’ so we shouldn’t interfere or we have a « white saviour » mentality, endless gaslighting

So, we let down tens of thousands of girls and women living in this country, we leave them to the crutches of obscurantism and oppression. No need to go to Iran or Afghanistan, it happens here and I am sick of it tbh.

'White women need to care about something other than sex and gender'
'Oh OK, I got all these testimonies from women who have to live under a shroud of darkness'
'Not those women, white women arent allowed to speak about that.'

Bad if you dont and bad if you do.

Norty KJK. Stay in your lane eh?

This is long overdue. It’s misogynistic oppression in plain sight. People make a big deal about ‘what women choose to wear’ but it’s a garment that is culturally loaded by patriarchal, violent and erroneous ideas about female sexuality. Not tempting men to sin should be entirely the responsibility of men.

This 'white saviour' thing - does that apply to any cause that may involve people of different ethnicities?

And 'mistrust' of religion is allowed, you know. Any religion.

Islam is a religion practised by people of all ethnicities.

The “intersectional” feminist community is bothered about who says what and “cultural appropriation”, but they also think a group of entitled sexist men are more oppressed than any women, so meh. If this event is not to anyone’s taste, they don’t have to go. Let Women Speak.

If the niqab is so great why aren’t men wearing them? I can understand why women do not want visibility in front of the men in their communities . Some are virtue signalling their faith to others. Some will free themselves when in women’s company. The problem as always is men, and we are allowed to be critical of their oppressive religions and ideas.

You could reasonably say that this issue is none of my business, so I'm just commenting out of interest in the underlying philosophical and practical implications of involvement. I see and sympathise with your objection to "performative fanfare". My questions are:

Is performative fanfare necessary to get some men to start questioning their part in controlling women's behaviour? There are many examples where publicity has been part of getting debate going.

Is anyone effectively helping women who are "being pressured in relation to Islamic dress", in this country or in countries such as Afghanistan?

I don't personally take to KJK, but when she shouted "he's a man" that encouraged people to stop just being "kind" and to stand up publicly for women who were being abused by men.

Is anyone effectively helping women who are "being pressured in relation to Islamic dress", in this country or in countries such as Afghanistan?

I don't know of any organisations involved in this. It is quite specific.

The Amina organisation in Glasgow does great work, including specifically on 'taboo' topics.

https://mwrc.org.uk/vawg/vawg-campaigns/

Looking at one of Amina's campaigns, on intimate image abuse:

'For Muslim & BME women, intimate images could include photos of parts of their bodies (such as their legs) or even the hair of Muslim women. However, these do not meet the legal definition for ‘intimate images’. The legal definition must be made inclusive to protect Muslim & BME women.'

That might present some interesting issues.