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 The historical political drama is about the foot soldiers of
the early feminist movement in London in 1912 and their campaign
of militancy to fight for women to get the right to vote.
The story centers on Maud, played by Carey Mulligan, a working
wife and mother, whose life is changed forever when she is
secretly recruited to join the growing suffragette movement led
by activist Emmeline Pankhurst, played by Streep.
But as the movie's stars, including Helena Bonham Carter and
Anne-Marie Duff, walked the red carpet at Leicester Square in
central London, up to 100 mainly female protesters were on
standby with about a dozen jumping over barricades and laying on
the ground chanting slogans.
Security guards tried to remove the protesters who had signs
pinned to their clothes reading "dead women don't vote", with
some women escorted away as green and purple smoke bombs filled
the air. The demonstrators moved on after about 10 minutes.
Shanice McBean, 22, was among the protesters who said the stunt
was meant to re-ignite the feminist spirit of the movie by
spotlighting violence against women.
"We're here to say to say that it's great that women's history
is being shown in the film, but that the struggle is not over,"
said McBean, from London, who is currently unemployed.
Emma Fischer, 27, a teacher from London, said the protesters
organized by a group called Sisters Uncut condemned cuts by
Britain's conservative government to the budget for domestic
violence services such as refuges for women.
"With two women killed a week in the UK due to domestic violence
cuts, there's no way we can stop fighting," she said.
No one from the film, that opened the BFI London Film Festival
and is set for a U.S. release later this month, was immediately
available to comment about the protest.
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The protest startled some of the film's stars but others backed the
demonstration that prompted police and extra barriers along the red
carpet and delayed the screening by 15 minutes.
Interviewed by Sky News at the premiere, Bonham Carter said the
protest was the "perfect" response to the film.
"I'm glad our film has done something. That's exactly what it's
there for," said the actress who, ironically, is the great
granddaughter of former Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, a key
target for the suffragettes at the time.
Oscar-winning Streep has said it is "infuriating" that the
film-making industry continues to be male-dominated.
The film shows how the authorities are shocked as the women's civil
disobedience rises and sparks debate across the country while the
women involved risk their jobs, homes and children to fight for
women's right to vote.
Finally, in 1918, a limited number of women in Britain were first
given the right to vote - those aged over 30 who met a property
qualification. It was not until 1928 that all women over 21 were
allowed to vote, achieving the same rights as men.
(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers
humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and
climate change. Visit www.trust.org)
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