IT WAS, the organisers said, about more than Roosh V. Despite a day of rain and wind, hundreds turned up in Glasgow’s George Square and Edinburgh’s Grassmarket to argue for equality and protest misogyny.

Stella Rooney, a 17-year-old student at Glasgow’s Hillhead Academy, told the audience, that Roosh V, real name Daryush Valizadeh, was a “representation of the shit we have to deal with all the time”.

The protest had originally been planned to disrupt meet-ups organised by Valizadeh for his followers on the “neo-masculine” site Return of Kings.

The men’s ‘Happy Hour’ was supposed to happen in 43 different countries, but all were cancelled after a fierce backlash.

The catalyst for that backlash was an article written by Valizadeh, calling for rape to be legalised.

He later claimed it was satire, but there was plenty of other writing from the pick-up artist to suggest he has a loose relationship with consent.

By the end of the week, Valizadeh was left humiliated and ridiculed, the Daily Mail having discovered the 36-year-old living in his mum’s basement.

Rooney explained why, despite that it was still important to assemble and start this conversation: “Whether it being out on a Saturday night and being harassed by a man twice your age or being told you can’t do certain subjects at school because you’re a girl, we all experience sexism on a daily basis and honestly, this has tipped it off for me. It’s so good that this became not about one man. Because this is a conversation that’s long overdue.”

Final speaker at the Glasgow protest Anna Hodgart told the crowd that they should “no longer tolerate and ignore the micro and overt aggression that make up the day-to-day lived experience of more than half this population.”

This she said, meant no longer tolerating “anyone having to be fearful as they walk home in their own city or to worry about having to watch their drinks.”

In the crowd June Nicolson said Saturday night’s event was a celebration, “It’s bad enough that we’ve got enough worries without guys like him thinking we’re fair game.”

Former MSP Rosie Kane was heartened by the turn-out: “Your man Roosh, the whole thing about him he’s just an example of the problem, but the problem lurks in every pub in Glasgow. All the pubs about this area, all the clubs about this area for women are vulnerable or made vulnerable by men like this. “

Lucy Black said she’d come down because it was important to be “more than an internet warrior when there’s something that you actually care about and that’s important to you”.

“His supporters are still out there,” she said. “So to turn up at least shows to his supporters that this behaviour is not acceptable, in Glasgow or anywhere else in the world.”

Stuart Crawford was one of many men in the crowd, he was hopeful that this might be significant: “In a small way this will make a difference. Will it solve everything overnight? Of course not, but small gradual progress is what we’re looking for.”

Tempers flared at the protest when three people unfurled a banner for Tommy Sheridan’s Solidarity party.

One person who asked not to be named said: “The mere mention of Sheridan at a protest against misogyny is a joke. How dare they?”

The Solidarity members told officers from Police Scotland that they were being intimidated.

After the speeches, the crowd marched through Glasgow city centre, heading to pubs mentioned in a guide on the Return of Kings website.