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.)

An old article looking at issues surrounding veils for women in Europe:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13038095

Debate from the National Secular Society:

https://www.secularism.org.uk/veil-debate-should-the-uk-ban-th

And the Secular Society's pages on women's rights issues impacted by religion:

https://www.secularism.org.uk/women/

Talking about 'coercive control' in this situation is a bit like talking about 'enhanced interrogation'. The whole concept of the veil is misogynist oppression at its finest. Modesty does not translate as erasure in anyone's language.

Good for KJK.

Women are either guilty of ''white feminism'' or ''white saviour'' mentality - I can't tell if that's the good girl double bind, or a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I hope the event gets a lot of publicity and starts a long overdue conversation about how many women in this country are not enjoying the rights and freedoms that they have whilst in this country.

That certainly is a topic that needs more discussion.

This Let Women Speak page has screenshots of messages sent to KJK by women who are forced to wear various forms of "the veil" - scroll down then click on any of the screenshots to scroll through the gallery of images:

https://www.letwomenspeak.org/free-your-faces

Some of the stories, many of the stories, are heartbreaking.

By chance, yesterday I came across this video by a woman who has left Islam:

5 Horrible Hijabi Fashion Trends You Shouldn’t Try This Summer

Worth watching to see the horrors that women who "choose" to wear the veil inflict on themselves and the physical risks that they take to ensure their "modesty". I don't know where the "Hijabi women" featured live but I think not in countries where wearing the veil is enforced by the state.

KJK has been criticised for not distinguishing between different forms of "the veil" whereas these Muslim and ex-Muslim women refer to its various manifestations by the catch-all "hijab" as well as differentiating between different types.

There is this too:

Iranian protests: 'Standing up for freedom should never be labelled as Islamophobia'
9 Oct 2022
Iranian women's rights activists Mooniter and Elnaz Sarbar join Andrew Doyle as protests in Iran enter their fourth week following the death of Mahsa Amini.

What I find vile is the performative misogyny of feminists (!) who don the hijab every Feb 1st on World Hijab Day "in recognition of millions of Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab and live a life of modesty."

These will include the same "feminists" who deride "trad wives" and SAHMs, saying that their "choices" are invalid because they have been brainwashed by and are propping up the patriarchy, or that their "choices" are those of women who are subjugated by the threat of abandonment or domestic violence.

Where is their solidarity with and recognition of the millions of Muslim women who are forced to wear the hijab and "live a life of modesty" under threat of violence and death? Not because it is required by their patriarchal religion because it is not: it is required by their patriarchal cultures, by men using the excuse of religion to justify their subjugation of women from when they are little girls.

Not just in far away lands but in the UK too.

The double standards these feminists set for Fundamentalist Christianity vs Islam are baffling to me. Christians advocating "abstinence" for both men and women before marriage: bad.

How about Muslim men wanting virgin brides? It goes part and parcel with "choosing" to wear the hijab and "living a life of modesty" from childhood. To say otherwise is what is "cherry picking".

Revealed: 'Deeply disturbing' Muslim matchmaking site operating in Britain advertising virgin brides and polygamous marriages
6 July 2025
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14879319/Muslim-matchmaking-Britain-virgin-brides.html

Same with this. Nine is old enough to be a bride, say the Taliban. How old were the youngest victims of the Grooming Gangs? Ten if I recall correctly. Veiled six year old and nine year old girls being sold as child brides in Afghanistan. "Immodestly" dressed ten year olds in school uniform sold for sex in the UK.

There will be veiled girls in the UK being raped by the same men. Their "modesty" does not protect them. All the veil does is signal their oppression and subjugation.

UNHEARD VOICES - Sexual Exploitation of Asian Girls and Young Women
September 2013
https://www.mwnuk.co.uk/resourcesDetail.php?id=97

These children suffer the same gang-based rape and torture that has become horrifying familiar from court cases over decades but they are even less likely to get support and justice, whether from the authorities or from within their own communities.

Why is that? We all know why. Good job some women give enough of a shit about actual women and children rather than wallowing in anti-racist virtue-signalling.

Susan Moller Okin: Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?
http://fs2.american.edu/dfagel/www/Class%20Readings/Okin/Susan%20Moller%20Okin_%20Is%20Multiculturalism%20Bad%20for%20Women_.pdf

Man’s Dominion: The Rise of Religion and the Eclipse of Women’s Rights
Sheila Jeffreys – 2011
https://sheila-jeffreys.com/book/mans-dominion-the-rise-of-religion-and-the-eclipse-of-womens-rights/

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

You are saying women should not protest on behalf of other women if the protesters are a different colour or from a different belief system.
This is oppression olympics. You are putting colour and belief above sex.

KJK’s off the cuff remark went viral - 25 million views on X so far. It hit a nerve in the Middle East. KJK has been inundated with testimonies from women forced to live in these repressive societies. The Free Your Face event would never have happened if she hadn’t had the reaction that it did. KJK is one brave woman as TRAs are mere kittens versus Islamic males.

reminds me of when I was on the beach a couple of years ago. A woman clad in full burqa on a boiling hot day. Her husband was wearing swimming shorts. How anyone can justify it and say it’s ok, is beyond me.

KJK is one brave woman as TRAs are mere kittens versus Islamic males.

Absolutely.

This is going to light a fire.

I don't know how I feel about this event but I don't think it's possible to reconcile 'choice' with something that women are imprisoned, tortured and murdered for not complying with.

How did you know she was wearing sunglasses, if she had a burqa on?

What an appalling faux pas!

Shame on the woman who doesn't know her niqab from her burka from her hijab from her abaya from her jilbab from her khimar from her dupatta from her chador from her wimple!

🙄

75 white people..erm..of an age looking utterly ridiculous and lead by a far right troll.

Seeing those pictures, I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. It reminds me of that GC guy who stalks trans ppl IRL (Mr Menno?) ran around in an all in one black outfit or when JKR did that picture with a cigar and everyone IDed her as doing an impression of Andrew Tate (or for the older people, Jimmy Saville).

Perhaps if I hadn't had to deal with 'GCs' for a decade, I would just say that it's hapless people being cringe whilst their hearts are in the right place, but KJK has so many connections with white nats and far right, it will never be so 'harmless'

Not just control of sexuality but it has links to slavery. The hijab or modest dress was a dignity offered to muslim free women but not women who were slaves. It was not an islamic innovation of course - it existed in pre-islamic cultures, hence the apologists confidently declaiming "it is all men and all religions"- but really in our current world, it is only Islam that enforces such strong global control of modest dress for women that undoubtedly involves legal coercion and punitive social sanctions. And there is something else, the 20th century, women's movements in the global south were decidedly anti-veil, anti hijab. The now uniquitous hijab only began to be adorned globally from the 1980's onwards as global islamism surged. In many parts of the world, the hijab, outer cloaks, severe black clothing actually replaced traditional muslim dress and ornamentation (example hair jewellery, flower adornment).

I pity the fool that doesn't recognise that JKR was channeling Hannibal Smith in her cigar picture

Amazing isnt it? Strident "feminist" types will scold you for being racist for such a lack of knowledge.

'Of an age'

Good grief you're not even attempting to hide your ageism are you?

What particular point are you trying to make?

That once we reach a certain age we no longer count?

Your mother must be so proud 🙄

Funny how the first images that sprang into life in Chris's mind were of a paedophile and a rank misogynist.

I personally know women who were beaten and forced to wear the hijab by their families. They were all minorities living in secular non muslim countries.

I think it is an excellent way to open up an honest discussion about women who may be forced, one way or another, to cover themselves up in such a way. Here and abroad.

I am not a fan of trying to ban what women of certain groups are wearing as part of a cultural/religious expression, but KJK is not saying that.

Smart move on her part.

Och, Bee, you're too young to know the A-Team. I'm not, and JKR isn't. Google could tell you:

The A-Team is known for its memorable quotes, often delivered by Hannibal Smith and B.A. Baracus. Some of the most popular include "I love it when a plan comes together," "I ain't gettin' on no plane!", and "I pity the fool!"

And plenty of cigar moments:

Nothing to do with any of the people you mentioned.