EXCLUSIVE Moment crowd of women's rights campaigners dressed in Niqab-style veils ripped them off to declare 'free your face' in provocative London protest

Daily Mail​

14 hours ago

This is the moment a crowd of women's rights campaigners dressed in Niqab-style veils ripped them off as they declared 'free your face'.
Up to 75 protesters gathered in London 's Hyde Park this afternoon for a Let Women Speak (LWS) event, spearheaded by campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as Posie Parker.
The group, dressed in black veils with 'free your face' printed on them, walked through the park in unison, holding placards that read 'free speech for women' alongside black balloons printed with 'women: adult female'.
Stopping at the popular Speaker's Corner area, Ms Keen pulled out a white ladder to stand in front of the crowd, stating: 'what we are doing here is something that women in the Middle East cannot do and that is to remove the veil.'
The group then ripped off their veils in unison to the sound of passionate cheers and whistles, while others chanted 'free your face'.
Ms Keen, who founded the #LetWomenSpeak movement and leads the Party of Women, said that the group had gathered as an 'act of solidarity with all of the women who have to live behind the veil because their husbands, cousins and brothers are too weak'.
The events, which often take place across the country, see women take to the stage to talk about a variety of issues that affect them.
Speakers are often known for their gender-critical views and the group also campaigns against using female-only spaces.
One rival protestor shouted from the crowd 'women should be at home', but this did not deter Ms Keen. She continued: 'Four weeks ago, I received stories from women from all over the Middle East who have had to live behind the veil since they were 12 years old.
'In the UK, all over our cities we are seeing more women wearing the veil. As a free woman, I do not think this is acceptable. This is what happens when a man cannot bear for women to be free.
'If a man cannot control himself when he see's a woman's face, then he should wear a mask'.
Ms Keen, who proudly stated she is 'not a feminist' added: 'I say no to the veil, no to the Niqab'.
Speaking directly to a counter-protestor who criticised her for 'spreading aggression against men', she quipped back: 'f**k you'.
Another woman who took to the stage to speak, added: 'We live in a free society so we do not want women being told what to do and not being allowed to live their lives. I cannot stand by and not say anything about this'.
Meanwhile, another protestor, dressed in a necklace that spelled out 'women', tearfully struggled to get her words out.
She said: 'You can make your choices, but they have to be free choices and the veil is never truly a free choice. Please for the sake of your sisters, choose freedom.'
Founded in 2018, the LWS group was formed in response to proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA).
Described as a 'bold, international movement' the protestors say they have worked to 'spark a global awakening around the importance of defending the rights of women-adult human females'.
Ms Keen, dubbed 'one of the world's most recognisable defenders of women's rights', finished her passionate speech by declaring: 'The reason we created this movement is because so many men are frightened of our voices.
'Today we say for women all over the world, free your faces. And to the men who subject them to it, we say f**k you.'
After the event, Ms Keen told MailOnline that the inspiration for today's speech came from an 'off the cuff' comment she made to two women who were wearing a Niqab at Speaker's Corner last month.
She said: 'There were two women and I just said "free your faces ladies, free your face and liberate yourselves".'
Ms Keen says a video of that moment was seen 24 million times across social media platforms and inspired a wave of Middle Eastern women to share their 'heartbreaking' stories.
She continued: 'These women reached out to tell me things like "I haven't had the sun in my face since I was 12" or "I'm living a life of servitude because the mask is one thing, the niqab is one thing, but actually I don't feel like a complete human being".'
Ms Keen said some women even revealed they were not allowed out in their garden and that the biggest thing they had to look forward to was going to the cafe alone.
She is now vowing to keep pushing the message forward to stop women from being 'imprisoned' by the Niqab, despite pushback from some protestors.
'Speaker's Corner is a very unwelcoming place for women because the men are very loud and most women aren't,' Ms Keen continued.
'I happen to have quite a loud voice. Most women don't, so it can be a bit intimidating. But I was prepared. And I think it went really well and it was a spectacle.
'We always get pushback because there's some men that can't cope with women speaking. But those are really the men that we are very glad to hear women speak. So they start to understand that we're not stopping.'
Ms Keen added that she wants to see the Niqab banned, saying: 'There's a rise in it being worn in various cities such as London, Birmingham and Bradford.
'I think we really need to think very carefully as a country. I'd like to ban the face covering. I think there's too many women that are forced to wear it for us ever to think that it's a choice.'
Last October, up to 70 women gathered in Carlisle Park, Morpeth, Northumberland, for a Let Women Speak (LWS) event and were met with counter demonstrators who shouted through megaphones: 'Transwomen are women'.
Branding Ms Keen a 'fascist', counter protestors shouted during the speeches: 'You're not radical, you're just d***heads.'
They also blew whistles in an attempt to drown out the gathering and also shouted 'get off the stage' and 'get some new material'.
But Ms Keen defended the group, remarking: 'Some women are coming to speak using some words, and some spoiled brats are trying to stop us.
'We just want to speak about our rights. We want to speak about our spaces, our sports, our children, our safety.
'Those people over there are from the elites and are trying to shut us up. Most of us are from relatively normal families who have to pay a mortgage, pay bills.
'They haven't sent us to a nice university to mess around with our fees and our grants and to come and harass middle-aged women.'
The Labour party previously faced previous accusations of being 'undemocratic authoritarians' after a local party pressured a venue into cancelling a Conservative-run debate due to Ms Keen's attendance.
The Tottenham Conservative Association was due to hold a debate on 'The Future of British Politics' in February last year, but the Clissold Arms pub in Muswell Hill, north London, told organisers yesterday that they had to cancel it after complaints.
A letter sent to the pub by the Hornsey and Friern Barnet Constituency Labour Party executive committee, seen by MailOnline, said that 'Keen's events often attract other far right groups including neo-Nazi groups on a recent tour of Australia'.
On her tour of Australia in 2023, men showed up to a rally in Melbourne and performed Nazi salutes, but she insisted they were not invited or welcome there.
The letter accused Ms Keen of 'extremely transphobic views' and of harassing transgender people, adding that her attendance would create a 'dangerous and hostile environment for local trans people'.