Women of the World event drops rape victim and her attacker

Thordis Elva was due to appear on stage with Tom Stranger as part of the WOW Festival

The Women of the World (WOW) Festival has removed an event featuring a rape victim confronting her attacker.

South of Forgiveness was due to take place on Saturday 11 March at London's Southbank Centre.

But the event has now been moved to a later date, after complaints from women's rights campaigners.

A petition against it, raising concerns about how the event would impact other survivors, reached more than 2,000 signatures.

Thordis has already confronted Tom on stage in a TED Talk

Thordis Elva was due to appear on stage with Tom Stranger, the man who raped her at the age of 16.

The Icelandic writer contacted him many years after the attack, which happened while they were in a relationship.

The pair have co-authored a book and delivered a Ted talk about the process of confronting their shared past.

But campaigners argued that staging it as part of a women's festival would "encourage the normalisation of sexual violence instead of focusing on accountability and the root causes of this violence".

The event will now take place outside WOW, after Southbank Centre director Jude Kelly met with women to hear their concerns.

In a statement, she said WOW was created to be "an open, balanced platform for discussion and debate on gender equality and the related critical issues that women and men struggle with every day".

"Rape is one of these critical issues and we need to shift the discourse around it, which too often focuses on rape survivors rather than rape perpetrators," she said.

The petition reached more than 2000 signatures

"Following their Ted talk we programmed survivor Thordis Elva to share her journey of coming to terms with the devastating impact of her rape and her decision to invite perpetrator Tom Stranger onto the stage, to take full responsibility for his actions," the statement added.

"Having considered the importance of this debate for the widest possible public, and after having further conversations with survivors, support organisations and audiences, we have decided to stage this event on the Tuesday 14 March rather than on Saturday 11 March as originally scheduled, to enable as many people as possible to contribute outside a festival context."

Southbank Centre will be hosting group discussions after the performance for anyone affected by its themes.

You can find more information on sex and consent via these BBC Advice pages.

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