Free Your FaceS
On the 25th May 2025, I came across two women with their faces completely covered. I told them to free their faces. As a woman who has always known the simple liberty of sunlight on my skin, the sight of others in a fabric prison — not by choice, but by pressure or control — struck me deeply. It is bracing, upsetting, and impossible to ignore.
There are many ways to strip a woman of her freedom, but this is one of the most visible. The garment itself is only a symbol — and perhaps the least of her restrictions — but its message is loud. It demands to be addressed.
After I shared a short, seven-second video of that moment that has at least 24 million views, I received hundreds of messages from women around the world. They told their stories — bravely, honestly, painfully. Their words speak louder and more powerfully than I ever could.
I have compiled many of them here.
If you are a woman or girl who would like to share your experience, you can do so anonymously using the contact form on this website. We will respect your privacy and your voice.
On the 29th of June we returned.
"My name is Kellie-Jay Keen. This is an act of solidarity with all of the women who have written to me who have to live behind the veil. Because their husbands, their cousins, their brothers are too weak to enable those women to be free.
So what we are doing here is something that women in the Middle East cannot do, and that is to remove the veil.
Okay, so Let Women Speak started by saying:
No woman has a penis.
No man has a vagina.
There's no such thing as non-binary.
And transitioning children is profound abuse.
And today we say to women all over the world:
Free your faces!
And to the men who subject them to it we say:
Fuck you!"
