A controversial talk by a rape survivor and the man who raped her has been moved out of a women’s festival to a standalone event next week following protests.

Icelandic writer Thordis Elva was due to speak at the Women of the World festival at London’s Southbank Centre on Saturday with Tom Stranger, who raped her when she was 16.

Following protests against Stranger’s appearance, the event was cancelled while festival organisers consulted the author and her publisher, as well as rape survivor groups and other interested parties.

The rescheduled talk will be held on 14 March. While Stranger will still appear on stage with Elva, the talk will be followed by facilitated group discussions to support anyone whose own memories of sexual assault are triggered by the talk, the organisers said. Support services, including the Samaritans, will also be available for anyone who needs confidential help with the issues raised.

Announcing the decision, Southbank Centre artistic director Jude Kelly said the move was made “to enable as many people as possible to contribute outside a festival context.”

Elva was raped in 1996 by Stranger, an 18-year-old Australian exchange student living in Iceland who was then her boyfriend. Elva contacted him eight years later to tell him how she had been affected. An unlikely email correspondence followed, in which both discussed the impact of the assault. Their correspondence and subsequent meeting formed the basis of a new book by Elva, South of Forgiveness, which includes contributions from Stranger.

The event had been scheduled, Kelly said, after Elva and Stranger’s joint TED talk about the rape. After it was announced, women’s groups and other interested parties criticised the decision to allow a self-confessed rapist to speak at a festival organised to celebrate and inspire women.

Kelly rejected the criticism, saying: “Our WOW festival 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.”

Organisations working with survivors of rape and other violent crime welcomed the move. Marina Cantacuzina, founder of the Forgiveness Project, which among other things organises events in which victims and perpetrators talk about the impact of a crime, said it was important to hear Stranger’s story in order to understand why some men rape. “[Thordis and Stranger’s] talk is very well crafted, and he speaks in a way that is really important to hear. So while I don’t agree that he shouldn’t be heard, I do understand how his presence may be triggering,” she said.

However, she questioned the suitability of Southbank Centre for their event. “My main concern has been how appropriate is this as a venue. Perhaps they should have started out with somewhere less high-profile and more intimate,” she added.

While describing Elva as “incredibly brave and inspiring”, Claire Waxman, founder Voice4Victims, warned that the event “could have huge impact on other victims as it could be seen to be minimising rape”. She added: “Ultimately, it’s the survivor’s decision to engage in restorative justice, but I personally wouldn’t advise victims of sexual assault to take this route, and am not sure if such interaction between victim and rapist should be a public spectacle.”