A ‘NEOMASCULINITY’ GROUP that has argued for rape to be legal on private property is organising a meet-up in Naas, Co Kildare.
The online community is called Return of Kings and is organised by controversial blogger Daryush ’Roosh’ Valizadeh.
The group’s ‘community beliefs’ include arguing that, “gender equality is a myth that has no scientific basis” and that a “woman’s value significantly depends on her fertility and beauty”.
The group also proposes extreme views on rape and domestic violence. It argues that women use rape laws “as a weapon to punish men” and domestic violence laws “as a weapon to control their husbands”.
In a February 2015 blog post entitled How To Stop Rape, Valizdeh argued that the solution is to “make rape legal if done on private property”.
The blog post is regularly cited by opponents as evidence that Return of Kings incites violence against women.
Valizadeh argues that the blog post was “satire”.
A fortnight ago, the Return of Kings website published a list of locations for an ‘International Meetup Day’ planned for this coming Saturday.
The meetup for the community’s ‘tribesmen’ is being organised in 43 countries at 8pm local time in each city.
Among the planned meetings there is one listed for Ireland and eight across the UK.
The Irish meeting is listed for Naas, ‘in front of the main entrance of Naas Courthouse’. As with many of the city listings, it warns that a protest is likely at the meeting.
Details of the meetups also contain bizarre instructions about how the ‘tribesmen’ should identify each other, by asking the question ‘do you know where I can find a pet shop?’.
Whether or not the group has any followers in Ireland is unclear, but the planned meeting for Naas has been described as “abhorrent” by Kildare Sinn Féin councillor Réada Cronin.
“This group advocate that ‘no means no, until it means yes’. This is complemented by a range of misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic comments,”Cronin says, adding that there is ‘no place’ for such a group in Ireland.
Frankly, the entire rationale behind such a group, a group of hate, is abhorrent. They exist solely to propagate the demeaning and harassing of women.
Valizadeh’s apparent plan to attend a meet-up in Sydney has led to calls for him to be banned from entering Australia.
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