RAPE-ADVOCATE Roosh V has been run out of Scotland, after protesters forced the controversial misogynist to cancel meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh tomorrow night.
Yesterday organisers of the protests said they would still go ahead, claiming this was now “bigger than Roosh”.
Roosh, real name Daryush Valizadeh, had organised meet-ups for his followers in 166 cities in 43 countries. The “tribal gathering” or “men’s happy hour” was supposed to be a chance for the like-minded men who use the Return of Kings website to “come out from the shadows” in a bid to form some sort “neo-masculine” movement.
After The National exclusively revealed the planned meet-ups in Glasgow and Edinburgh protesters quickly organised. A petition started by Cat Boyd on Monday had, at the time of going to print on Friday night, received 60,000 signatures. Thousands had said they would go to Glasgow’s George Square and Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, location of the planned meetings, to disrupt the gatherings.
In a statement on his website Valizadeh said the meetings were cancelled as he could “no longer guarantee the safety or privacy of the men who want to attend”.
There was some unintended irony to this statement as he had originally told supporters to film any women who turned up so the videos could be sent to his worldwide “anti-feminist” network for “furious retribution”.
Vonny Moyes, who along with Amy MacDougall organised the protest in Glasgow’s George Square, said those who stood up to Roosh should be proud that they had stopped him.
Moyes said: “As we’ve maintained, this issue is bigger than Roosh. He’s become the poster boy for the broken gender schemes that damage men and women. This is our chance to make a statement about our own definitions of masculinity and femininity. We should be proud of what we’ve achieved, but there’s still work to do. If nothing else, we should still gather to celebrate starting a global conversation about equality.”
On the Edinburgh event’s Facebook page organisers originally cancelled their protest saying they would take Roosh V’s backing down as a “giant victory”. They then later reinstated the protest due to the “unforeseen sheer enthusiasm”.
Yesterday, MPs debated the meetings during an urgent question in Parliament. Responding to a question from Glasgow South West MP Chris Stephen, Home Office Minister Karen Bradley said the Government would continued to monitor Roosh V and the Return of Kings website.
Stewart McDonald asked the minister to condemn “the sick-minded halfwits who support these events” and who would now this weekend “be sitting in their underpants, eating cold ravioli from a tin”.
Labour MP Chi Onwurah suggested the meetings were “a publicity stunt by an attention-seeker so insecure in his own masculinity that he goes to such lengths to augment the size of his – er – following”.
In a moment that made Glaswegians of all ages, sexes, faiths and sexualities properly proud, Valizadeh took to Twitter to say that he’d had more threats from Glasgow than anywhere else in the world.
Writing on the Glasgow event’s Facebook page Rosie Kane said Return of the Kings was “simply the manifestation of something that goes on in society”.
“We must still assemble and make these points. No to abuse, rape, misogyny. Several times we have gathered when our sisters have been taken in violence – let’s meet and keep meeting till awareness reaches fever pitch.”
In an article published on the Return of Kings website last February, Valizadeh had called for rape to be made legal on private property, so that if a women consented to come into a man’s house, she had consented for sex. He later claimed this was satire.
The National View: If we don’t speak out against sexism and misogyny we are condoning it
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