Dear all,
We wanted to start with a massive thank you to every individual that has taken five minutes out of their day to sign this petition. As every hour goes by, our message to the Student Guild gets stronger - we will not accept ignorance and misogyny around the rights women have over their bodies, and we will not tolerate the Guild sponsoring it.
A number of different UK laws outlaw hate speech. Among them is Section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986 (POA). This makes it an offence for a person to use "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour that causes, or is likely to cause, another person harassment, alarm or distress". As you will know, Alireza Ghazi-Torbati, the president of the society, claimed on the society's Instagram page that abortion "is part of the rebellion against God and deserves punishment". That comment has now been conveniently edited out, however, we have evidence of the original post. Your support enables us to continue drawing the Guild and the University's attention to these and other alarming statements.
On a final note, today we emailed the Guild with our petition and we also copied in the President, Lily Margaroli. We look forward to opening up a conversation with them, and attach the letter below:
"Dear sir/madam,
I am writing to bring to your attention a serious matter, which I believe concerns the wellbeing of female students across the university. As you may be aware, as of this year, a pro-life society has been commissioned and it’s existence is thus necessarily supported by the Guild. Not only are prominent members of this society spouting dangerous speech about the topic – that abortion “is part of the rebellion against God and it deserves punishment” (President) – its mere existence is intellectually reductive.
This society is not a ‘society’ by any means, because it has a clear ideology and a set of goals. It is not, unlike any other society here, an umbrella or incorporation of nuanced views on its specific topic. The group is fundamentally intransigent. This is alarming because through sponsoring a group with such singular and dogmatic views, that group is shielded from debate that should naturally occur in a university environment. Isobel Maddocks, Lauren Gollop, and I, commissioned a petition for our movement to have this society banned. We currently have 352 signatures from students across the university and this number continues to rise by the hour (please find petition enclosed). We would welcome a swift response and to open up further conversation with you, to discuss how we can right these wrongs.
Best wishes,
George Adamson, Isobel Maddocks and Lauren Gollop"