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TPQ
Christopher Owens 🔖 Despite the passage of time, the Victorian era still fascinates and has a grip on the collective psyche.


A lot of this is to do with the fact that, due to the Industrial Revolution, the modern city evolved into the form that we know during this period. Therefore, the myriads of cobbled backstreets, towering chimneys and terrace housing still feel familiar and just as claustrophobic in 2026.

The image of a top hatted Jack the Ripper slicing his victims up in smog filled streets is another potent image that, for many, epitomise the era: the rich exploiting the poor working class in ways never seen before. Likewise, the folk-devil Spring-heeled Jack would be used as way to warn misbehaving children. Therefore a link was made by some between modernity and evil not of this earth. One that Jonathan Traynor has chosen to explore further in his new book.

With his previous works involving post-apocalyptic surroundings and the struggle for individuality in a suffocating world, some might find it odd for him to explore 19th century Britain. But considering both novels covered contemporary issues, it’s notable that he does the same here.

Telling the tale of Earl Black, the working-class Giles Jennings and alcoholic xyBal, these esteemed gentlemen and daemon respectively are special agents for Her Majesty’s Government who deal with cases that may be simple on the face of it but involve the supernatural. Of course, the Earl is well equipped to deal with this, being over 350 years old and the last of his kind. Such tasks involve dealing with Prussians who have stolen secrets that threaten the British Empire, factory owners in Manchester who won’t free their staff and goings on in Cambridge that involve carnage.

A kind of cross between Sherlock Holmes, The X-Files and Hellblazer, if you will.

The theme of an establishment that seems to have unlimited powers thanks to the supernatural is an eternal one not just because of David Icke but also because it reflects the growing fear among many that the government are ruthless when it comes to these issues and many feel powerless to defend themselves accordingly. In Earl Black . . .  Traynor does an immense job of demonstrating how such forces would be incorporated into Her Majesty’s Secret Service no problem. At the same time, Traynor knows that he’s writing a penny dreadful at the end of the day so it’s to his credit that the reader goes on the adventure with these characters while still pondering the implications.

The book also taps into fears about immigration which were as common back then as they are today. While having tea with Queen Victoria, Jennings depicts his working-class upbringing in a manner that most from such backgrounds would understand:

Your majesty, I grew up in the dark and dirty back streets of the east end, there are more non-humans, as you say, than most, err, how can I explain, than the members of parliament can imagine. Imps, faeries, elves, all types. The truth is most represent no threat or mean no harm. Like us all they just want to survive. They provide many services to the community, help people. I know of one who acts as a community banker, it makes sure to collect people’s money and distribute throughout the week so it cannot be wasted on drinking and gambling.

Once again, Traynor hits it out of the park with a gripping tale of horror and intrigue that also taps into concerns and fears that are older than we think. He should explore this terrain further.

Jonathan Traynor, 2026, Earl Black and the Daemons of the British Empire. Traynor Press. ISBN-13: 978-1910728710

⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.

Earl Black And The Daemons Of The British Empire

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Thirty Seven

 

A Morning Thought @ 3112

Tommy McKearney ☭ Press headlines in Washington on Patrick’s Day 2026 were carrying the news that Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, and once a staunch MAGA supporter, had resigned.


What was really surprising, though, was his reason for quitting. Kent wrote on Twitter that he couldn’t continue because he believed Trump’s assault on Iran was unnecessary, saying that Tehran posed “… no immediate threat to our nation…” adding that the conflict was launched “… due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby…”.


Not that such a trenchant criticism — and indeed exposé — of the USA’s blood-soaked campaign of conquest in the Middle East was having any impact on the Irish delegation to the White House.

While America’s imperial master was absorbing the news that a one-time devotee (along with several other leading MAGA supporters) was causing a headache for the regime, his ego was being massaged by a kowtowing Micheál Martin, sliding in to present Trump with a bowl of shamrock.

Amazingly, this crawling performance from the Taoiseach was reported by the Irish mass media as a successful day’s work. Not only had the Fianna Fáil leader apparently managed to avoid antagonising the emperor but had even contrived to speak up for Britain’s Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.

All of which missed the very real point that the photos of a simpering Martin alongside Donald Trump were effectively dismissing the murderous behaviour of US imperialism’s frontman. Ireland’s premier was greenwashing a cruel monster who had facilitated, if not actually supervised, genocide in Gaza, ordered an illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran that began with the massacre of 168 schoolgirls, and had ordered a savage blockade of the small Caribbean island that is Cuba.

In order to counter criticism of this revolting pandering in the White House, the coalition government promoted the excuse that the Republic is economically dependent on the goodwill of Trump. To antagonise the tanned autocrat, they said, would risk endangering US investment in the 26 Counties.

Notwithstanding the fact that acquiescing in this charade is morally repugnant, the reasoning underpinning the decision to “cuddle up” with the US empire is flawed — and dangerously so.

In the first instance, it is widely accepted, even by free-market economists, that the Republic’s government should be seeking to diversify the economy away from its over-dependency on a few US multinational companies. Last month a study¹ delivered by Professor Alan Ahearne of UCG stated that this degree of reliance was “… a structural vulnerability of the Irish economy which public policy should seek to address.”

The reason Micheál Martin and his coalition cronies refuse to instigate a different economic policy is not due to being unaware of the need to do so. Their motivation arises from a determination to preserve the current class structures. Not antagonising Trump also extends to endorsing the US model of capitalism with its rule by the wealthy privileged few.

By the same token, the warm words for Keir Starmer (and Winston Churchill!) were designed to embed still further the southern Irish state within the imperialist sphere. To achieve this end the old Empire, on which the sun has now set, was recently invited to send its navy back into the Republic’s territorial waters.

Last month the Financial Times reported² that during a meeting in Cork, Martin and Starmer agreed a “defence and security pact” which would, in a statement issued later from Downing Street, mean that “… both countries have … committed to completing a series of joint exercises…”. The article continued by saying that the Irish government has recently unveiled a maritime security strategy involving working closely with the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, composed of ten NATO members.

Taken together, we have a situation whereby the government in Dublin is seen to have a servile relationship with US imperialism and its despotic president. Any doubts about the nature of the connection are set aside by the granting of Shannon Airport for use by the American military.

When this fact is considered in tandem with the Irish state joining a NATO expeditionary force led by Britain, it is not remotely credible to claim the country is neutral. In reality it has to be accepted that the 26 Counties is a participant in the imperialist world order and is, moreover, seen to be so. The implications of such a stance are obvious. In the event of a global conflict, Ireland is a target. And all this done to maintain an economic system that preserves existing class structures and the privilege it provides for the few.

For the sake of decency and for the protection of the people it is imperative that we remove the current ruling class and its capitalist programme and, in its place, establish a Workers’ Republic.

Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist.
He is author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament.
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney

Shamrock And Shame 🪶 Ireland’s Kowtow To Imperialism

Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 30-March-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Social Movement on four years of resistance 
⬤ Russia’s medical, sexual and other torture.
⬤ Humanitarian disaster in occupied Oleshky. 
⬤ Russia’s clandestine detention system.
⬤ Russian oligarch investigated.
⬤ High oil prices benefit Russian budget.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

Terror behind closed doors: Russia’s abductions, torture and monstrous sentences in occupied Crimea (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 27th)

Russia imposes criminal liability for denying previously unknown ‘genocide of the Soviet people’ (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 27th)

The Face of Resistance: Crimean Tatar Activist Marlen Mustafayev (Crimea Platform, March 27th)

Russia Leads Crimean Children from School Desk to Combat Contract (Crimea Platform, March 27th)

Melitopol IT specialist sentenced to 20 years after Russians torture out a ‘confession’ to ‘terrorist plans’ (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 26th)

Another 15 children and teenagers brought back from Russian occupation after fear, threats and pressure (Ukrainska Pravda, March 25th)

Russia brings new 5-year sentence against Crimean political prisoner over 2022 social media post (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 25th)

The price of a few cents: Women in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine are being jailed for tiny payments to Ukraine (The Insider, March 25th)

Weekly Update On The Situation In Temporarily Occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, March 24th)

Outcomes of the Third Black Sea Security Conference of the International Crimea Platform (Crimea Platform, March 24th)

Russian judge convicted of war crimes over massive sentence against Ukrainian POW for defending his country (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 24th)

Russia tortures two young Melitopol schoolboys to death, passes long sentences against three other lads (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 23rd)

Russian legislation used as weapon against 74-year-old historian and the truth about the Crimean Tatar Deportation (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 23rd)

News from Ukraine

Housing and Residential Conditions of Ukrainians: Survey Results (Cedos, March 27th)

Professional development and educational needs: the second networking event for journalists from relocated media outlets took place in Kyiv (Zmina, March 20th)

Kyiv Register of Damage Forum on supporting people affected by war (Zmina, March 20th)

War-related news from Russia

‘Total chaos’: Russia’s internet blackout (Meduza, 27 March)

Russian losses in war update (Mediazona, 27 March)

The virtual ruble: Why Russia’s digital currency experiment could strengthen the Kremlin’s authoritarian control (The Insider, March 27th)

How Russian school history books reframe Stalin, Gorbachev and war in Ukraine (Meduza, 24 March)

Analysis and comment

Soaring oil prices will benefit Russian budget, but not fix the economy (Meduza, 26 March)

Phosphorus as a Tactic of War (Tribunal for Putin, March 26th)

Anti-war film: Mr Nobody and his critics (The Russian Reader, 24 March)

Impossible Island: Russia’s foreign policy analysed (Posle.Media, March 18th)

International solidarity

Teachers’ union vote to support Ukraine (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, 26 March)

ZMINA brings Ukrainian perspective to Democratic Solidarity dialogue in Bolivia (Zmina, March 23rd)

Upcoming events

Wednesday 15 April, 6.0-7:30 pm. Try Me for Treason: Voices Against Putin's War - Part of the Think Human Festival 2026 Actors will perform extracts from speeches made from the dock by Russian oppositionists who have been tried for sabotage for actions taken against the Russo-Ukrainian war Clerici Building, Clerici Learning Studio, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Oxford.

🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.


We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.

The bulletin is also stored on line here.

To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to:
2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.
To stop it, please reply with the word “STOP” in the subject field.

News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 190

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ With a fruitcake holding Presidential Office in the White House, the sanity of the supposed ‘most powerful man in the world’ must be questioned, as Trump apparently imagines he’s talking to Iranians who are not there about peace while he drops bombs on their cities!

Without withstanding the religious nutters in Tehran, across the globe in Russia we have a megalomaniac in charge of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal sitting in the Kremlin. In Tel Aviv, a war criminal sits in the Knesset as the head of the Israeli Government, and in Ukraine stands everybody’s friend – I don’t think – Volodymyr Zelenskyy, perhaps the least harmful of these madmen. He only uses neo-Nazi troops in his war with Russia, claiming there are no ‘Nazi links’ in Ukraine which plainly there are. This is a blatant lie because the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian Army claim to “model themselves on the DAS Reich Regiment of the Waffen SS” one of Hitlers elite regiments. Zelenskyy is probably the least significant of the world’s leaders who we stupidly allow to rule over us, destroy our lives, and essentially constantly threaten to burn our house down! Perhaps the man with the least functioning faculties in his top deck is Donald Trump who in my view is suffering from criminal insanity, a couple of cards short of a full deck, and, for his own good and that of his family, should be hospitalised. Some of the mental institutions in the USA are very good if you have the money to pay. Maybe he could retire there out of harms way for the next ten-twenty years, the asylum sounds a fitting end for Trump.

With all these fruit salads in charge and weaker sycophants in lower world positions the future does no look great for us mere mortals. We have mega billionaires, many would argue the true world governments, people like Elon Musk, who intends to commercialise space travel, Richard Branson who also has similar ideas on space movement and many rich individuals who have entered the space cowboy race. The climatic damage these loonies are causing to the planet, in the name of making money under the guise of scientific research, are seldom if ever mentioned. All we mere mortals are encouraged to do is look on in wonder at these marvels of engineering the space rockets designed and constructed by others so these great men can amass huge profits! Down here on earth the amount of domestic aviation travel, a major contributor to planetary vandalism, is on the increase making flights more cost effective for business to make money. People who live near airports with concerns about noise are given scant regard as more and more 747 jets fly overhead. In an interview on 2nd April on Virgin One Ryanair Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary, called the residents living near Dublin Airport liars. He claimed the “noise level” is well within the “legal limits” and the residents, who have fuck all better to do than spend money on expensive companies, are making their readings up! They certainly are not as professional companies took the reading which were well above the agreed level. O’Leary makes a fortune out of Ryanair and the more flights he can get the more money his pockets can boast.

We often hear on various news bulletins so-called experts talking about the damage aviation travel does to the climate. Firstly, aviation fuel is very high octane, and is a major source of damage to our atmosphere. We have experts arguing for fewer passengers and no more runways, both sensible arguments except to Michael O’Leary. Then on the next clip of the same bulletin another expert will come on and without referring to the previous people speaking about passenger reduction they will rant on in order to remain “competitive” we need More passengers at “Dublin Airport”, not less. At the moment a “passenger cap” exists at Dublin Airport but that looks likely to be smashed at the insistence of the Americans – who else?

Putting domestic aviation travel into the shadows is space exploration. During the 1950s and 60s the USSR and USA vied for space superiority. Ignorance could be partially blamed back then but what is the excuse now? As mentioned, Musk is aiming to commercialise space travel and his real aim is to find another planet for a few super rich people to live on, the same gang who are fucking this planet up in the process. Be it Musk, Branson, or any other rich parasite who sends rockets through the atmosphere they are causing irreparable damage to the earth’s atmospheres five layers. These layers are delicately positioned and once damaged will not repair. Coupled with Musk and his gang of space cowboys we also have Agencies like NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in the US, ROSCOSMOS in Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA) now joined by Japan, the UAE, India all jumping onboard the bandwagon and all helping our planet to the graveyard. 

The latest mission to be shown off to an ever-gullible global public is from NASA. The mission is called Artemis II (Greek Goddess of the Hunt) and is their first to lift off for 52 years. It was on all our screens for fools to marvel at and the astronauts to crack jokes about going for a piss in a confined space. What the gullible global audience perhaps did not give a second thought to was when this piece of equipment lifted off it gave off the equivalent of at very least 28, probably 40, 747 Jets taking off simultaneously. Imagine the climate damage this lift off alone caused without taking into account the commercial travel plans of Musk and the likes in the future? Many of these crafts never actually lift off, they fail on the ground blowing up and killing all on board but also blasting huge gushes of flames and bilge into our atmosphere. And we are supposed to marvel at these fantastic brains which make such missions possible! Would it not be better to listen to these undoubtedly brilliant minds putting their heads together with the likes of David Attenborough to calculate ways of countering the much lower in severity natural climate change? Not the great fortunes to be amassed by the tiny few granted but I bet they’d feel much better.

Elon Musk is obsessed with finding a compatible planet to live on and start all over again, not in the stone-age, but where we are now! Musk is already talking of re-populating Mars, which suggests the planet was once populated, all good stuff for the fictional Professor, Quatermass in the 1967 science fiction film, but to spend billions making it come true? People down here on earth need food, medical supplies, medical operations which could easily be done with this kind of money available. Just so old Elon has an idea of how huge his task in finding another planet with earths peculiarities there are an estimated two trillion galaxies in the universe! Within these galaxies we are looking at 100 billion to one trillion (1,000 billion) planets, each one having to be explored. There is no guarantee any of them will share the same characteristics with our earth and therefore support human life, none at all. Optimists claim at least one will support life as we know it and they are possibly correct but finding that illusive planet makes the needle in a haystack look easy, there are far more pressing issues on earth to be dealing with. The law of averages suggests this may well be true so, go on, which one? This money, as just wasted by NASA, would be better off given to poorer countries so they can develop their medical facilities and save lives. Will the good people who own billions, much of which has been accumulated through the exploitation of labour do this? No, being good Christians – which they are not – they will keep their money and waste it on pointless space explorations.

When the atmosphere becomes damaged it cannot be repaired, at least not by man. The most important atmospheric layer* to us is the Troposphere which controls our weather, temperatures, and melting ice at the poles, it contains 80% of all water vapour. Ice is already coming off certain areas in chunks the size of Wales, a small country, and this will get worse. More damage has just been done with this NASA craft taking off and penetrating through the five atmospheric layers. Then there is all the debris left behind in space and, in the case of Musk, the re-entering once again numerous times causing untold damage to the five layers but particularly the Troposphere. People may have noticed the seasonal floods getting worse every time. The time will come, and it may not be too long away now, when these flood waters will have nowhere to go as the seas will have risen too high. With ice continuing to melt the tides will continue to rise and flood waters will be permanent. For low lying countries like Holland, Belgium and Ireland the long-term prospects are frightening. Within 100 years these and other low-lying countries will be history. At a more local level back in the late nineteen-sixties and early-seventies farmers began digging out trees, bushes, hedges to make larger fields and increase profits. What they were digging out were natural drainage systems and now they get yearly floods and crop failures. Serves the greedy bastards right but their greed pales into insignificance compared to the Elon Musks, Richard Bransons and their gang’s exploits.

The news bulletins do put sane people on to give their take on the subject. Their views are seldom heeded, not as sexy as people making fortunes while the rest perish, but they do make more sense if people would listen and act. RTE News interviewed Dr Peter Thorne of Climate Change Advisory Forum who said adamantly its “time for action, we’ve known of climate change for two decades”, implying only those who do not want to see could miss the changes. Dr Thorne is perfectly correct but how many will listen let alone act? Karl Marx spoke on this subject at the time of the Second Industrial Revolution referring to Ireland:

if Ireland were to sink only 500 feet, the mountain ranges alone would be left, forming two semi-circular groups of islands on either side of a broad sound stretching from Dublin to Galway.

This can equally be applied to the more likely 500 feet rise in sea levels which is happening before our very eyes and are being accelerated by the activities of the capitalist class and their play toys like the latest NASA craft. And still we mere mortals look on with admiration at these great marvels to ingenuity like watching with admiration the arsonist who politely tells residents he has come to incinerate their homes!!

*There are another four layers apart from the Troposphere to earths atmosphere; the:

Stratosphere (12-50 km): Contains the Ozone that absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation; temperatures increase with altitude. The Mesosphere (50-85 km): The coldest layer, where most meteors burn up on entry. Thermosphere (85-690 km): A very thin layer where temperatures increase significantly with height; auras (northern/southern lights) occur here. Exosphere (690-10,000 km): The outermost layer, merging with interplanetary space, where satellites orbit.

Damage to any of these layers could be catastrophic for earth as present changing weather conditions are living proof of. The Troposphere is, for us, the most imminent and important but the other four play a significant role in the maintenance of our planet. What do we do? Applaud those who seek, intentionally or otherwise, to destroy them!!
     
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

And They Carry On Regardless

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Thirty Six

 

A Morning Thought @ 3111

Maryam Namazie ✊Blasphemous. Corrupt. Apostate. Kafir.


These words are always defined from the perspective of the religious. The religious lens is treated as neutral, as default. Blasphemy is assumed to be harm, at best offensive, at worst a threat to morality, stability, and even national security.

I have lost count of how many times I have been accused of enmity against God. Of insulting religion. Of wounding fragile sensibilities. And, of course, of Islamophobia.

These accusations are instruments of power. They shift the ground from politics to piety, from power to offence. They turn dissent into sacrilege so authority no longer has to defend itself; it only has to punish.

Conversely, blasphemy is the insistence that nothing is beyond question. It refuses to treat authority as untouchable.


But we are told blasphemy laws are necessary to protect God and faith, protect feelings, prevent violence. Each claim collapses on examination.

If you believe in an all-powerful God, do you truly believe he requires penal codes to defend him? Is that not blasphemous in and of itself?

If the purpose is to protect religion, which religion? Religions declare others false, heretical, corrupt. All claim exclusive truth.

Who decides which interpretation deserves protection? In Pakistan, Ahmadis have been prosecuted under blasphemy laws for identifying as Muslims. Blasphemy laws do not resolve these conflicting positions. They select one and back it with the full force of the state.

And to those who say the purpose is to protect feelings, whose feelings count? The Baha’i in Iran? Ex-Muslims condemned by scripture? Women facing stoning or polygamy? LGBT people labelled sinful? Offence is not neutral. Power decides which offence matters.

But we are told blasphemy laws prevent violence. In fact, they incentivise it. Ibtissame Betty Lachgar is in prison for a T-shirt. Those who threatened her with rape and death are free. The state rewards threats with censorship and persecution and shifts responsibility onto the dissenter. Outrage gains political weight; dissent does not.

This logic extends beyond states with explicit blasphemy statutes. England and Wales abolished its blasphemy law in 2008. Yet in a case involving public Qur’an burning, authorities have relied on public order legislation. Such cases raise the question of why irreverence toward religion is being treated as uniquely dangerous and destabilising in ways that irreverence toward other ideologies is not.

When religion is shielded from criticism in ways other doctrines are not, blasphemy law returns in substance, even if not in name.

If peaceful expression provokes threats and the speaker is blamed, that is not preventing violence. It is surrendering to it.

However it may be packaged, blasphemy law is a mechanism of state control. It turns doubt and dissent into crimes. It turns authority into something sacred so criticism appears immoral rather than political.

When religion fuses with state power, this is explicit. Law is framed as divine command. Hierarchy is presented as eternal.

The moment authority is declared sacred, it acquires privilege. Laws derived from it become harder to challenge. Decisions justified by it become harder to reverse. It claims immunity from criticism.

Yet human progress and political change throughout history have depended on scrutinising, challenging, and rejecting the sacred. Monarchs claimed divine right. Churches dictated law. Slavery was defended through scripture. Expansions of equality have required confronting institutions that claim sacred authority.

Consider the witch hunts of fifteenth to seventeenth century Europe. Thousands of women were burned, tortured, executed—legally sanctioned and religiously approved assaults on women’s bodies. Women who defied prescribed roles, who refused submission, who lived outside male control, were branded heretical and murdered. With devices like the scold’s bridle, an iron muzzle forced into the mouth, women were silenced (similar to the hijab, which is a fabric version).

The claim by some that religion is identity and that criticism therefore attacks people collapses under its own logic. If identity alone justifies immunity from criticism, then any ideology that shapes identity, including nationalism, would be beyond challenge. Democratic politics depends on the right to question all ideologies.

Undoubtedly, equal protection under the law is essential for everyone. But equal protection means protecting people from discrimination and violence. It does not mean shielding doctrines from criticism. Protecting believers and protecting beliefs are not the same thing. Individuals deserve protection; ideas do not. Hate speech targets people. Blasphemy challenges doctrine and ideas.

Blasphemy laws are not only about regulating speech. They protect a wider social order. Sacred authority does not operate abstractly. It is embedded in sex-based norms. The family is one of its central sites.

In patriarchal systems, property and status pass through male lines. That requires controlling women’s sexuality. Family law enforces this through marriage, inheritance, and guardianship. Women are positioned as daughters, wives, and mothers because these roles stabilise lineage and belief.

This is not only about tradition or religion. It has a material function. The patriarchal family reproduces property, status, and labour power across generations.

When doctrine underpins family law, sex-based hierarchy acquires sacred legitimacy. Norms are framed as divine rather than historical.

When women publicly reject what is defined as sacred, they interrupt the reproduction of authority, which is treated as betrayal.

Women’s compliance stabilises the system. Their dissent destabilises it.

Blasphemy laws punish men too. But when women dissent, they challenge both religious authority and sex-based hierarchy at once. The threat is doubled because the system depends on women’s compliance. Women are treated as blasphemous even before they speak, their existence regulated and segregated to prevent fitnah, or chaos, in society.

In such systems, being a woman is in and of itself an act of blasphemy. Their bodies, their hair, their voices, their sexuality are treated as deviations from a male norm. They are not recognised as autonomous subjects but as extensions of male guardians and honour. Before they speak, they are already transgressive.

Women’s blasphemy exposes that the sacred order depends on women’s obedience. That is why it is so violently opposed. A blaspheming woman is framed as dishonour. Punishment is sexualised: rape threats, stoning fantasies, bodily humiliation. The message is clear: your body belongs to the order you have challenged.

Women’s blasphemy has long been erased from official histories. Women who resisted sacred authority were labelled immoral, hysterical, possessed, dishonourable. Their dissent was recorded as pathology or sin rather than resistance.

The imprisonment of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar in Morocco illustrates this. She is serving a 30-month sentence for posting a photograph wearing a T-shirt reading ‘Allah is Lesbian’. The photograph was taken in London. The slogan challenges the assumption that God must be male and male authority natural. For that peaceful expression, she has been imprisoned, mistreated, and risks losing her arm due to serious health complications.

Those who threatened her walk free. But it is Betty who is punished.

This disparity is not a failure of the system. It is how the system works.

Blasphemy laws rely not only on prosecution but on fear. People silence themselves because they see what happens to others. Punishment teaches the limits of speech. When a woman blasphemes and survives, she weakens that fear.

The right to blaspheme is not, therefore, marginal. It is what keeps power answerable. And when women blaspheme, they also expose sacred hierarchy as human construction, making equality and liberation imaginable.

Blasphemy laws protect power by declaring it sacred and disciplining those who refuse submission. They remove authority from politics and place it beyond challenge. They convert dissent into crime and fear into governance.

Women’s blasphemy does the opposite. It exposes sacred authority as human construction. It interrupts the reproduction of obedience. It refuses the demand that women carry, transmit, and protect hierarchy in the name of religion. When women blaspheme, they dismantle the mechanism that keeps power untouchable.

A society that punishes women for blasphemy is not defending God or belief. It is defending domination.

When women speak, they are told they provoke.
When women dissent, they are told they destabilise.
When women refuse obedience, they are told they blaspheme.

A society that cannot tolerate women’s blasphemy is built on fear.
A society that can tolerate, and even celebrate it, is built on freedom.

The above is a lightly edited transcript of a speech delivered by Maryam Namazie at an event organised by De Balie on Women’s Blasphemy vs the State on 21 February 2026. It was first published in The Freethinker on 4 March 2026.

Maryam Namazie is a  is a British-Iranian secularist,
communist and human rights activist, commentator, and broadcaster.

Women’s Blasphemy And The State

Jim Duffy ✍ Trump's ceasefire deal is a disaster - for Trump. 

Think about it. Not a single aim he had for the war is delivered by the deal.
 
No regime change.
 
No protection of ordinary Iranians.
 
No prevention of Iran getting nuclear weapons.
 
No confiscation of Iran's enriched uranium.
 
All he had gotten is to get the Strait of Hormuz open. 

But the reason it was closed was due to his stupidity. He rejected military advice to seize it first to stop Iran getting it. His stupidity allowed Iran seize it.
 
So all this deal achieves is to go back to the status quo ante that had existed before Trump's war.
 
A classic Trump disaster.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

Trump's Nothingburger

Seamus Kearney 🎤 ''Blood and tears ran down your cheek, the voice of God's mercy remained silent, only death and hunger of strength were the grains for your furrow'.

A rare photo of Freddie Scappaticci 's troop from the Force Research Unit (FRU).

Freddie Scappaticci was in uncharted waters after November 1992 and his formal dismissal from the Provisional IRA. He was still on the British Government's payroll but the regular payments could not continue indefinitely if no 'product' was forthcoming. The fact that he had not found himself in a body bag, lying on a border road like many of his victims, may have given him a sense of invincibility because he continued to live quite openly in Republican West Belfast.

In 1993 the woman who had given him the alibi the previous year was working in Connolly House, Andersonstown, for Sinn Fein. On a number of occasions Scappaticci walked in and engaged her in conversations, mostly related to his electioneering work. It seemed that Scappaticci had lost none of his chutzpah. He wasn't going away quietly.

The IRA leadership were in a quandary at this point in time as it may have figured that Scappaticci, their main 'rat catcher', was too big a figure to simply interrogate and then execute, coupled with the potential threat to the morale of their rank and file if it was discovered he had duped the entire leadership for literally year upon year. Therefore, a policy of 'damage limitation' was adopted from 1992 onwards, basically keeping him at arm's length and hoping he would go along with the unwritten rule of plausible deniability. This would go a long way to prevent mass demoralisation within the ranks of the IRA.

However, although he had been ineffective since 1990 as a result of the Sandy Lynch affair, Stakeknife still had the ability to hold grudges against certain people who he felt had undermined or marginalised him. When an opportunity arose in the shape of the 'Cook Report' Scappaticci took his grudge a step further and made contact with three of the journalists from the programme. Within a tight circle of people it became known as 'Revenge at the Culloden', as the incident took place in the car park of the Culloden Hotel outside Belfast in August 1993.

After he climbed into a bugged car Scappaticci met Clive Entwistle and reporter Frank Thorne, along with Sylvia Jones.

Not realising that the vehicle was bugged Scappaticci stupidly began railing at senior IRA figures, spitting out his venom against those in his mind had castrated and disempowered him. Shortly after this debacle at the Culloden, Scappaticci was reprimanded by his military handlers in the Rat Hole, in Lisburn and ordered never to pull that stunt again. His handlers couldn't believe Scappaticci could be so careless and potentially compromise his security over three journalists. He was no longer at the heart of things concerning the IRA and that seemed to agitate him immensely. His position in the world of espionage and treachery seemed to have taken a left turn into the surreal.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XIII

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Thirty Five

 

A Morning Thought @ 3110

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