Demonstration against Let Women Speak Oxford

[IwantToRetire]

A demonstration organised by the campaign group Let Women Speak (LWS) took place today at Bonn Square. Around 100 counterprotestors also assembled, including members from the Oxford Green Party, Stand Up to Racism, and Oxford for Trans Rights (O4TR).
https://www.cherwell.org/2025/10/18/oxford-trans-counterprotest-women/

Event was https://www.letwomenspeak.org/event-details/let-women-speak-oxford-2

Having these men turning up to support her and waving Union Jack with 'Terf Island' written on them isn't a good look.

Why not? Can you explain what you mean by ‘these men’ and why you have an issue with Union flags with Terf Island on? Why are so many determined to smear KJK with ‘right wing’ slurs? Is men supporting women’s rights ‘right wing’ these days?

Can you give any examples of this ‘anti Muslim’ commentary you’ve seen?

I can think of quite a few areas where the clash between women’s rights and Islamic practices would generate criticism.

Can someone point me to the part of the protest footage where 'these men' are holding up Union flags?

I can see two or three Union Jacks through the footage but they are held by women.

This isn't a case of poor innocent Kellie-Jay having her protest gatecrashed by racist thugs. She openly chose to ally herself with them!

Can you clarify tho you are calling ‘racist thugs’ and why?

It does nothing for feminism to join up with the hooligan mob. Even those of us who are concerned about immigration should know better than to be friendly with these scum.

What evidence do you have that these men are ‘scum’ and a ‘hooligan mob’??

Your outrageous and unfounded generalisations in an attempt to smear KJK are shocking.

No, it’s very strange.

These PPs seem to be just making up nasty accusations against these men and trying to smear KJK by association.

I’ll be interested to see if they can back any of these accusations.

Well she did get arrested for being 'untoward about paedophiles'.

Yes. I've got a lot of time for KJK (ever since her days on MN as @PosieParker) - I think she's been amazing in politicising women who wouldn't otherwise have become aware of the erosion of sex-based rights.

She's stood up really bravely and her message is always clear and unafraid.

I understand her concern about fundamentalist Islamicist views and practices (I suspect there's a lot more "underground" use of Sharia law than we know, which oppresses women). I dislike the practice of requiring women to cover up (actually, I hate it).

But it's hard to get that view across in a nuanced way, and I think that's where I really part company with her campaigning. I don't think the Stephen Yaxleys of this world are even women's allies, let alone feminist allies. Too many of them have prosecutions for domestic violence & similar crimes.

So to me, the clear focus of LWS has been diverted, and that's not a good thing for women. The LWS can be really moving, in the way ordinary women give their testimony. I'm sorry this important thing has become muddied & muddled.

KJK was asked to take LWS to Oxford. Perhaps someone could bother to listen to them.

So @MyBundles you made the assertion that

Having these men turning up to support her and waving Union Jack with 'Terf Island' written on them isn't a good look.

The footage is online, I have looked at some of it and not been able to find anything to support your claim.

You may be right. I have not looked exhaustively but you must have seen evidence before posting. Please would you post the link to the images or footage from the LWS event that supports what you have said.

No, I'm sure it's very special and vibrant though. A veritable landlocked Brighton.

A quick look at KJK's twitter feed shows a great deal of anti-Muslim sentiment. There's a clip of her berating a local Muslim scholar, Sheikh Ramzy, who is a progressive Muslim and an important voice for interfaith relations in Oxford. Her tweet labels him 'a lying piece of shit'.

She doesn't seem to know his name or anything about him; just the fact that he's Muslim and disagrees with her is enough.

This kind of ethnic stereotyping is the last thing that the UK needs.

I strongly suspect KJK's professed particular concern about muslim abuse (& interestingly disinterested in where the overwhelming abuse in the UK emanates from) is directly associated to white supremacy. Fascists are known to coopt causes to gain inroads via fear mongering about 'degenerate' scape goats (gays/trans/blacks/muslims/jews etc).

Howse appears to have outdone himself this time. Accusations of KJK being a white supremacist and a racist. That sounds a bit actionable to me. Zero evidence, wild accusations.

Your description is a little vague. What is she accusing him of lying about and what is he disagreeing with her on?

I’m not sure how a woman describing a man as a ‘lying piece of shit’ automatically equates to ‘anti Muslim sentiment’, unless you are saying that no woman is allowed to disagree with a man who is Muslim?

Max Morris is a councillor in East Oxford. Six wards in East Oxford are ranked among the 20% most deprived areas in England. So probably not what most people would picture when you casually throw out the term 'suburban Oxfordshire'.

data.oxfordshire.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/community-insight-profiles/

Repeating this against ‘Muslim’ is not an ethnicity.

I think you’ll find the vast majority of violent men she objects to are white - must if the violent mobs turning up to shit down her events and intimidate women are white. She’s not picky on race.

Are you just taking a scattergun approach to your accusations now? White supremacist, racist, fascist, anti Muslim. All totally unevidenced and unfounded.

You really hate a woman whose mission is to Let Women Speak.

"Well, you're preaching from the Koran, so we know you're against women. Asshole."

That's what KJK says to him in the clip on Twitter. Him holding the Koran means he's against women. That's anti-Muslim sentiment if I ever heard it.

The Bible is against women as well, depending on how you choose to interpret it.

It's possible to be a socially liberal feminist Muslim, just as it's possible to be a socially feminist Christian or Jew.

KJK is a purveyor of hate speech, end of story. I'm a woman and a feminist and she doesn't speak for me.

As a woman and a feminist, I would rather have Max representing me than KJK any day.

You seem to be confused. He is not representing women, he is trying to stop them speaking in public. He would only represent you if you agreed to put the priorities of men like him before the needs of women.

Wasn't she berating him for joining with the anti LWS protest and shouting at women?

You're conveniently ignoring the fact that saying to someone, "Well, you're preaching from the Koran, so we know you're against women. Asshole" is a clear instance of kneejerk anti-Muslim sentiment.

And incidentally, Max IS representing me, because I literally voted for them.

I'm not ignoring that, I didn't suggest that she didn't say it in my post. I'm setting the context. She didn't just walk up to him and say that out of the blue, it was part of a conversation.

Are you conveniently ignoring that he was protesting against women whilst stating he didn't actually know what he was protesting about

You appear to have conveniently missed the key part of that interaction which is that he turned up and stood on the side of the men protesting against the Let Women Speak event.

Honesty doesn’t seem to be a strong point in your repeated attempts to smear KJK ‘argument’.

She was rather dismissive of his Koran waving as that is literally being used as a tool of oppression for billions of women across the world and he turned up at a high stress situation in the side against her where their credible threats against her life and her family means that she is in a very stressful situation. I think her abruptness is understandable in the circumstances.

If the writings in the Koran are so female friendly, we need to hear a bit more volume from those imams fighting for women’s rights and emancipation - I’m sure they’re out there somewhere? Otherwise it sounds very much like she has a point.

Oh dear. You voted to give away your rights and those of other women. That was short sighted.

So it's OK to hurl a racist insult at someone depending on the context then. Right.

This thread is a depressingly vivid illustration of the intersection between trans-exclusionary feminist thinking and right-wing racist thinking.

Oxford is my city. I am not religious, but Oxford belongs to my Muslim neighbours, my Muslim doctors, my children's Muslim teachers as much as it belongs to any of us who live here. KJK: you are emphatically not welcome here. I'd rather sit down for a cuppa with Sheikh Ramzy over you any day.

Islam is a religion not a race. Criticising Islam is not racist