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‘Legal rape’ group leader ‘Roosh’ Valizadeh books flights, taunts Australia, customs officials

AS AUSTRALIANS pile on “legal rape” advocate and self-confessed pick-up artist Roosh V, the American posted a bizarre threat.

Rohan Smith and Network writers
5 min read
February 2, 2016 - 2:42PM
36 things wrong with American women according to Roosh V

THE “legal rape” advocate planning a visit to Australia appears to be increasingly desperate to do so.

Daryush Valizadeh, a pick-up artist known as Roosh V, is hoping to host “meetings” in Australia’s capital cities, armed with hateful messages towards women.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton is hosting an “urgent meeting” himself, one aimed at considering the cancellation of Valizadeh’s visa.

The American said that won’t stop him entering the country and “humiliating” Australians, and as if to prove his point, tweeted a bizarre map of Australia with the words: “The border is weak. I will get in” and a photograph of him holding a bundle of cash.

Valizadeh’s core messages include that rape on private property should be legal and women with eating disorders make ideal girlfriends. He told news.com.au he would not be deterred despite taking on the label of the “KKK of misogyny”.

Asked if he questioned the product he was planning on bringing to Australia, he said: “Nope, not at all. It just steels my resolve instead. I will humiliate your country like I did to Canada last summer”, a reference to his controversial visit to Montreal in August.

Overnight, Valizadeh taunted Australians on his official Twitter account and told customs officials they can’t stop him entering the country.

“F*** it, I just booked a flight to Australia. See you somewhere there on 2/6. I’ll stay a while, see some sights,” he wrote.

When told he’d never get through customs, Valizadeh wrote: “I’ll just take a private boat to Darwin from Indonesia or East Timor. I’ll find a way to enter. I won’t be stopped.”

The controversial pick-up artist and author of books including Bang Iceland, Bang Colombia and Poosy Paradise also wants to spend some time getting to know Australian women, or “girls”.

“To all attractive Australian girls in age range 18-22. I’m coming to your country and am free to meet for drinks,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday night.

Australians are having none of it. A petition calling for Valizadeh to be banned from holding meetings with Australian supporters had been signed more than 21,000 times on Tuesday morning.

“This man is advocating terrorism against women. This type of medieval thinking should not be tolerated in today’s world and certainly not a progressive country like Australia,” Dan Hui Wang wrote beneath the petition.

“This pathetic excuse for a man needs to be locked up on the basis of what he advocates — long before any ‘legal’ rapes take place,” Melinda Jensen wrote.

“This idiot is dangerous and has no place in civilised society,” Sarah Coad added.

Online, a number of high profile Australians have added their voice to the conversation. Australia’s former sex discrimination commissioner wrote that the views espoused by Return of Kings “are deeply offensive and have no place in Australia”.

Author Melinda Tankard Reist wrote that Return of Kings is the “KKK of misogyny”.

Victorian Police have confirmed they are looking into the Melbourne meeting and the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has requested an urgent briefing.

“Australia doesn’t welcome people to our country who disrespect women,” Mr Dutton told the ABC.

“The department in the past has made decisions to cancel visas of people that advocate violence, particularly against women. I’ve asked for an urgent briefing in relation to the matter. Like all Australians I’m offended by the reports that I’ve seen.”

In the lead up to the meetings, Valizadeh retweeted a news.com.au story alongside the declaration that “Their borders are weak. I’ll get in”. He implored members to “come out of the shadows and not hide behind a computer screen for fear of retaliation”.

“Up to now, the enemy has been able to exert their power by isolating us and attacking with shrieking mobs, but we’ll be able to neutralise that tactic by amassing in high numbers come February 6,” Valizadeh wrote.

“Let the sixth of February be a clear signal to all that we’re not going anywhere. We have finally arrived.”

Valizadeh was born in the US in 1979 to Armenian and Iranian parents. He studied at the University of Maryland before turning his attention to writing.

He’s been described as “The web’s most infamous misogynist” by The Daily Dot and listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “hateful”.

Roosh V wants to come to Australia.
Roosh V wants to come to Australia.

He hasn’t always had it his way, either. Aside from online opposition, Valizadeh had a beer thrown in his face in Canada last year.

Vice reported Roosh V was approached by two women on a crowded Montreal street before beer was tossed in his face.

“You piece of shit, how dare you f***ing come to Canada?” one of the women shouted.

It hasn’t deterred him or his supporters, who describe themselves as “neomasculinists”. They also believe movements like socialism and feminism destroy the family unit, decrease the fertility rate and impoverish the state.

They are against the “elimination of traditional sex roles and the promotion of unlimited mating choice in women (because it) unleashes their promiscuity and other negative behaviours that block family formation”.

As well as thinking rape should be legal if done on private property and advocating for dating girls with eating disorders, other beliefs include women should not have the right to vote, females should be treated like “disposable razors”, the “transgender movement” is a “horror story” and fat people are “a threat to the planet”.

Roosh V wrote: F*** it, I just booked a flight to Australia” on Twitter.
Roosh V wrote: F*** it, I just booked a flight to Australia” on Twitter.

Men attending the Return of Kings meet-ups must ask a specific secret question before they are taken to a bar where the official event will take place.

Valizadeh instructs his supporters that if a “pretty girl shows up and begs to be a fly in the wall”, to just get her number and “tell her to buzz off”.

It’s not the first time a so-called “pick-up artist” has been met with opposition upon trying to spread their messages in Australia. US-based Julien Blanc cut short his Australian tour in November, 2014, after his visa was cancelled.

Then immigration minister Scott Morrison said Blanc’s visa was cancelled because he was “putting forward abuse”.

“The matter was raised with us and we had it investigated and this fellow looked at,” Mr Morrison said.

“This guy wasn’t putting forward political ideas, he was putting forward abuse that was derogatory to women and that’s just something, those are values abhorred in this country.”

New Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has been asked to follow suit.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/legal-rape-group-leader-roosh-valizadeh-books-flights-taunts-australia-customs-officials/news-story/924f45bb5240daf6e929e2216257687e