A number of “No Hijab Day” protests have erupted across the country in a fightback against a “misogynistic and tone deaf” campaign.
World Hijab Day, held on February 1, is designed to “recognise millions of Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab and live a life of modesty”.
As part of the campaign, the group who started the movement “invite women of all backgrounds to wear the hijab for a single day on World Hijab Day” and extend this invitation for 30 days for a “deeper understanding”.
Schools up and down the nation commemorated the day, while others marked the day by celebrating “No Hijab Day”, a counter-movement fighting against the oppression of women across the globe.
They say they “celebrate women across the globe who are risking imprisonment, honour violence, and even death to fight for autonomy over their bodies and minds,” paying tribute the “brave women of Iran”.
They added: “Our focus will be on highlighting and supporting the phenomenal women of Iran who have been fighting for their freedom from religious misogyny and oppression for almost half a century.”
At one protest in central London, a placard reads “standing with Iranian women who are being slaughtered by the Islamic regime”.
On GB News this evening, women’s rights campaigner and organiser of today’s No Hijab Day protest, Kellie J Keane opened up on the People’s Channel to discuss her motivation behind the annual campaign.
She was joined by activist Khadija Khan, who commented: “I think this whole commotion about the World Hijab Day, it’s not only misguided, it’s profoundly misogynistic and tone deaf and dismissive of unspeakable sufferings that women and girls they endure around the world.”
She continued: “This kind of initiative, which are very reckless, I would say, because we know that there are millions of women who are suffering, who are forced to wear this attire.
So such initiatives exemplify how the language of tolerance in a free, democratic society such as Britain can be weaponised against liberal values which uphold bodily autonomy, equal rights for women and women’s dignity on all levels.”
The activist highlighted millions of women across the world are forced to wear the hijab under national law “who are being tortured, who are subject to sexual assaults, who are being incarcerated”.
Maree Todd, Scottish Minister for Childcare and Early Years and MSP for Highlands and Islands, tries on a Hijab at a display in 2018
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She added: “And in worst cases, they are killed by their own family members. And I would like to add that this is not only happening in Muslim majority countries, this is also happening here in the free Western societies.
“It is reckless to glorify it, to justify its imposition on women.”
Host Josh Howie highlighted concerns stemmed from “encouraging” young non-Muslim girls to wear a hijab, while the World Hijab Day campaign promotes the attire as a “personal, empowering choice” of clothing.
“I’m sure there are many women who feel like it is empowering, but there are also many other women who are literally dying to have the choice to not wear it,” he argued.
In agreement, Ms Keane concurred it was a “very visible tool of oppression, which is accompanied by many invisible tools of oppression within that young person’s life”.
The activist vowed she did not want to see any more women “subjected to this oppression”, explaining her criticism of the attire was more about its accompanying ideology.
“This ideology is misogynistic, deeply misogynistic. It’s deeply discriminatory towards women and girls and those women and girls who are forced to or who are made to wear it,” she warned.
“This is the point where we are actually at a crossroads,” Ms Keane declared. “We have to be decisive, you know, in our thoughts, in our actions, we have to decide.
“Either we are going to uphold or championed liberal values that treat women equally in the society, or we are going to cosy up with Islamic misogynistic perspectives that seeks to subjugate women and that seeks to coerce women into the World Hijab Day.”
