Blasphemy – and of course apostasy, heresy, enmity against god – are portrayed negatively and always from the perspective of the religious. The religious view is the default view. Blasphemy is therefore, seen to be at best offensive and hurtful. At worst it is seen to be a danger to national security, morality, stability of the state and by extension society, to be stamped out by any means necessary.

From our perspective, the perspective of dissenters and freethinkers, it is a cause for celebration. Particularly the celebration of blasphemous women at the centre of change.

The history of blasphemy is considered to be predominantly male but I would argue, it is female. Because being a woman is in and of itself an act of blasphemy. Our body, our hair, our eyes, our voice, our sexuality… A deviant form of man before we even think or speak.

Not individuals in our own right but extensions of male guardians and honour. A deviant form of man. To be rectified only by ensuring silence, obedience, submission through mass violence.

Not seen and not heard.

Much of women’s blasphemy has been and continues to be erased and made invisible. Just take, for example, the witch hunts of 15-17th century Europe where thousands of women were burnt at the stake.

Many killed because they refused to submit to patriarchal control.

Until the 18th century, countless others put in scold’s bridles, an iron muzzle that enclosed the head, was slid into the mouth and pressed down on top of the tongue, often with a spike on the tongue, as a compress. It functioned to silence and cause extreme pain, to scare and intimidate the woman into submission. A metal version of the hijab and burqa.

Silvia Federici in her book “Witches, Witch-hunting and Women” says the witch hunts were legally approved, religiously sanctioned mass assaults on women’s bodies.

Women’s ‘crimes’ were exaggerated to justify horrendous punishments as effective means to terrorise society, isolate victims, discourage resistance.

Used to control female sexuality which was seen as a social threat needing to be repressed into ‘acceptable female social behaviour.’

Sound familiar?

How many women are similarly being killed, shunned, erased, imprisoned, persecuted, silenced on a mass scale by the Islamists as we speak? Or by the Christian-Right, Jewish-Right, Hindutva, Buddhist-Right… for the “crime” of being women. Targeted by religion and the religious-Right obsessed with policing women’s bodies.

And yet still we rise.

Blasphemous women have been at the forefront of challenging the established order and the sacred and subverting the status quo, often at great personal risk.

At #CDOslo2024, we honour them and we celebrate blasphemy, which has throughout history been a catalyst for social change.