JK Rowling has offered support to Women\u2019s Rights Network in Northern Ireland after an event it had been due to stage was cancelled.<\/p>\n
The group were scheduled to run an event called Respects, Rights and Reality at F\u00e9ile an Phobail this summer.<\/p>\n
It describes itself as a network of women who promote the human rights of women and girls.<\/p>\n
Through this event women have sought to discuss their own rights. F\u00e9ile has chosen not to silence the voices of the very group that makes up half the population<\/p>\n
Women’s Rights Network<\/p>\n
However organisers of the west Belfast festival cancelled the event earlier this week.<\/p>\n
In a statement F\u00e9ile said it \u201cwas unaware from the initial submission that this event would promote campaigns against rights for the transgender community\u201d.<\/p>\n
It added that it \u201ctakes pride in standing up for those who are marginalised and attacked\u201d.<\/p>\n
Responding, the Women\u2019s Rights Network Northern Ireland (WRN NI) said it is \u201cshocked and deeply disappointed\u201d by the decision to cancel its event.<\/p>\n
In a statement on social media platform X, the group said its event was to be a discussion on women\u2019s sex-based rights, which was \u201cwas made clear to F\u00e9ile when our application was submitted\u201d.<\/p>\n
They said the event had been targeted with an \u201corganised online campaign\u201d, which had included \u201cmisogynistic, abusive and in our view, threatening rhetoric directed at women associated with it\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo organisation that values free speech should allow intimidation to determine which voices are heard,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough this event women have sought to discuss their own rights. F\u00e9ile has chosen not to silence the voices of the very group that makes up half the population.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen advocating for their sex-based rights are not campaigning against the rights of others. We reject any attempt to misrepresent either our organisation or the purpose of this event.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain committed to ensuring this important discussion takes place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Rowling responded to the statement offering support.<\/p>\n
She said her foundation \u201cwill help with legal costs\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JK Rowling has offered support to Women\u2019s Rights Network in Northern Ireland after an event it had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-563336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}