Nicola Sturgeon calls herself a 'true feminist' in response to Rowling's claims

Nicola Sturgeon has fiercely denied claims that she is a 'destroyer of women's rights' imposed against her by controversial Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

Ms Rowling, who has come under fire for her comments about the transgender community , shared a photo of herself in a T-shirt emblazoned with the accusation that the Scottish Prime Minister is a 'destroyer of women's rights' on Twitter. ”.

“No, I have spent my whole life campaigning for women's rights and I am a passionate feminist with plenty of evidence to back it up,” Ms Sturgeon told the BBC's Todayschedule when ques mentioned about Ms Rowling's claims about her.

"I respect people's opinions on this - people have the right to express their views as they see fit. wish."

Her comments come after Ms Rowling posted a picture of herself wearing the T-shirt attacking Ms Sturgeon in support of a protest held outside Holyrood on Thursday in opposition to the reform of the Gender Recognition Act.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, through Holyrood, would remove the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, while reducing the time a person would be required to live in their acquired sex from two years to three months - but there would be a three month 'cooling off period'.

A majority of MPs on the Scottish Parliament's Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee voiced their support for the main principles of the legislation in a report published on Thursday. The first vote on the bill is due to take place at the end of this week.

But Ms Rowling showed her support for the protest of more than 100 people outside Holyrood, which included speakers, including former Scottish Labor leader Johann Lamont.

“I stand in solidarity with ForWomenScot and all women protesting and speaking out in the Scottish Parliament. #NoToSelfID," Ms Rowling captioned the photo on Twitter.

Speaking on Friday morning, Ms Sturgeon said the legislation was to "reform an existing process" and "no longer gives people rights trans and it takes no rights away from women."

The politician, who is due to deliver a speech at the SNP conference in Aberdeen on Monday, claimed that it is predatory men who pose a threat to women, rather than transgender women being a danger.

She said, "Any man who seeks to abuse any process to attack women, we need to deal with that, we need to not further stigmatize an already stigmatized group of people.

"This is a statutory process, there are criminal implications for anyone who abuses it - it is not a process without important conditions attached to it."

< p>The Prime Minister has argued that the current process is 'stigmatising, it's traumatising, it's asking people to effectively prove they're mentally ill', as she warned anyone who abuses the process o utlined legislation would be to commit "a criminal offence".

Ms Sturgeon, who has led the SNP since 2014, said: "There are very many real threats to women right now, attacks - physical attacks , attacks of sexual violence, to the suppression of abortion and reproductive rights that women suffer in countries like Iran. consider that I am, I should focus on that right now."

< p>Ms Sturgeon has pledged 'zero tolerance' to transphobia in her party and has frequently argued that the f Eminism and trans rights should not be pitted against each other and deemed conflicting.

Additional reports by transfer