A female activist in Scotland has been arrested for hate speech. The alleged hate speech is simply the defence of women’s sex-based rights and reality.

Marion Millar, 50, from Airdrie, was charged under the Communications Act for six tweets published from 2019. If convicted she faces up to six months in prison.

The messages investigated by officers are understood to include a retweeted photograph of a bow of ribbons in the green, white and purple colours of the Suffragettes, tied around a tree outside the Glasgow studio where a BBC soap opera is shot.

It is believed a complaint was made to the police suggesting the ribbons represented a noose. It was one of at least six tweets reported to police. The nature of the other complaints is unclear.

Millar, who owns an accountancy business and is a prominent feminist, was bailed to appear at Glasgow sheriff court on July 20.

Millar has autistic twin sons and has been campaigning for women’s sex-based rights for several years. The hashtag “#WomenWon’tWheesht” went viral after her arrest. ‘Wheesht’ is a strong Scottish term for “shut up”. She has been strongly opposed to self-identification for transgender people, debating fervently for women’s sex-based rights.

Binary spokeswoman, Kirralie Smith, said the arrest was a disturbing development.

“A father in Canada, and now a mother in Scotland, have been arrested for defending biological reality,” she said.

“Extremists have influenced the system enough that innocent people who speak scientific truths are now being arrested. It is alarming and dangerous to violate people who speak the truth this way.

“Make no mistake, there are laws here in Australia that could be used to do exactly the same thing.

“These are serious intimidation tactics designed to silence opposition to the extremist transgender agenda. It is essential that Australians don’t give in to the bullies. Sex matters. Truth matters.”