Mridul Wadhwa - Male CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis

We know that women in minority cultures are forced into marriage, suffer violence, are raped and murdered by family members. Shouldn't they at least be considered in this discussion?

It's good to see that you've considered women from minority cultures at long last trisher, because they were actually brought into this discussion right at the beginning and you made no reference to them. In many minority cultures, women aren't allowed to be alone in the company of men. And yet, if, as you say, they have suffered rape, abuse and assault by a man, you are condoning them facing the very real prospect of being counselled and intimately examined by a man. How can you possibly not understand why this would cause them not to seek help?

Peasblossom

trisher

If someone breaks the law and does so without any consequences, is it that person's fault the law isn't applied?

Alright as long as you don’t get caught eh?

Not what I said. I'm just wondering why blame a transwoman instead of the legal system and the powers that be.
You see I'm quite willing to accept that the Equalities Act isn't being applied properly I just can't see that that is the fault of transwomen.

Umm, did Wadhwa’s application write itself?

If you knowingly and wilfully break the law, you are responsible and to blame.

Does your assertion that the perpetrator is not to blame extend to rape trisher?

Let’s take your stance all the way to it’s conclusions.

Chewbacca

^We know that women in minority cultures are forced into marriage, suffer violence, are raped^ and murdered by family members. Shouldn't they at least be considered in this discussion?

It's good to see that you've considered women from minority cultures at long last trisher, because they were actually brought into this discussion right at the beginning and you made no reference to them. In many minority cultures, women aren't allowed to be alone in the company of men. And yet, if, as you say, they have suffered rape, abuse and assault by a man, you are condoning them facing the very real prospect of being counselled and intimately examined by a man. How can you possibly not understand why this would cause them not to seek help?

So get rid of the woman who has been training women in such matters for 16years Chewbacca just because you don't like her gender. Are you saying there can be no transwomen who can bring such expertise and training to other women? Because it is highly unlikely that any women from such cultures will be able to get out or take action unless there is wider understanding of how such cultures work. MW is not and does not counsel rape victims she is an educator and trainer. How can you possibly not understand that she brings a unique perspective to this which has value?

She certainly does bring a unique perspective. He thinks he has the right to decide how women traumatised by a man should reframe their trauma if they want to be dealt with by a natal woman. That’s certainly a unique perspective!

I'm not sure what unique perspective you mean, trisher, and don't understand the point you are making.

MW's uniqueness is possibly true because of her trans status, as a holder of a role that was ring-fenced for female applicants only, but there is nobody who can bring a perspective that covers the experiences of all clients in something like a rape crisis centre.

MW's Asian heritage means that she might understand the culture of her country of origin but only from the perspective of someone from her background, social class, age, education and so on. Asia is a large continent with many different countries and cultures within it, and in any case none of us can claim to have a full understanding of anything but our own experience - anything else is learned from others.

Rape victims come from all over the world, and from various subcultural groups within its different areas, so someone from any one part of it can't possibly have the perspective that you consider valuable. As with all such organisations, post holders will have had diversity training appropriate to the role, will ask questions of clients and colleagues and learn as they go along. There really is no alternative.

You could just as easily say that I have a unique perspective, based on my own background education and experiences, or that you, or anyone else has the same.

Peasblossom

“Woman” is a gender Fanny

Male and Female are genetic terms, dependent up the X or Y chromosome and cannot be altered medically or socially.

If it states female applicants only it means a person with two X chromosomes. So a biological male cannot apply.

Unless she/he lies.

Is that the law?
If legally transwomen are not women, why then are transwomen being housed in Women’s prisons?

Btw thank you for you reply Peasblossom

There's a great deal being said about it in Scotland Doodledog. There are so many questions being asked about why the Scottish government is apparently removing single sex spaces, particularly in crisis centres. I think that there's an ongoing legal challenge about it.

Trisher

It seems very likely that MW wants her job so she can funnel money once meant for vulnerable women, to be given to trans causes instead.
In this respect MW is a politician. A liar who will deceive to achieve their goals.

I don't know that there is any real evidence that MW was ever a successful rape counsellor.
MW knows how to manipulate people and how to get the results she wants.

Doodledog MW is the child of a mixed culture marriage - her mother was a Zorastrian refugee from Iran who settled in India, she was educated in a Catholic all-boys school. She completed a degree inEnglish in India an MSc at Edinborough. She speaks 5 languages.. Isn't it just the tiniest bit possible tht she will understand the obstacles better than most?

You see I'm quite willing to accept that the Equalities Act isn't being applied properly I just can't see that that is the fault of transwomen.

MW chose to lie in her job application. And was possibly surprised to have got away with it.
MW is very good at manipulating the idiots who decided to give MW the job.

She may or may not. Of course there is the tiniest chance that she will, but it doesn't sound to me as though she has come from a deprived background, and there is no evidence at all that she will know how it feels to have been brought up as a female in any culture, much less a disadvantaged or restrictive one.

She has certainly led an interesting and unusual life, but I don't see how that makes her better qualified to understand a greater number of rape victims in Scotland.

trisher

Doodledog MW is the child of a mixed culture marriage - her mother was a Zorastrian refugee from Iran who settled in India, she was educated in a Catholic all-boys school. She completed a degree inEnglish in India an MSc at Edinborough. She speaks 5 languages.. Isn't it just the tiniest bit possible tht she will understand the obstacles better than most?

No.

What do those qualifications have to do with helping women through the trauma of being raped?

What do those qualifications have to do with helping women through the trauma of being raped?

Bugger all Callistemon

Long time no post on GN, but this is too important to overlook.

‘I hope she regrets it’ - regret cannot begin to counter the damage that the original comment has done.

‘ however I stand by my conviction that this woman is a woman’- well convince yourself all you may, but this person is not a woman born.

‘she has no doubt endured prejudice’ - the whole service & ethos of the rape crisis & support movement, every hard won inch of space & moment of time dedicated to this, is the priority NOT the feint chance of someone’s sometime challenge in life.

‘and certainly massive surgery’ - nope, not required at all to self ID as a woman.

‘people do not go through that on a whim’ - surgery to that extent carries risk whatever part of the body it is. People undertaking the journey to have surgery to change their secondary sexual characteristics in the UK have to have extensive psychological assessments & therapy before the knives are taken out. Two of my colleagues were on this journey & I have the upmost respect for their experience, choices & courage on a journey over many many years. None of it is easy & there is no guarantee that all is OK in the end.

However, there are a significant minority of people who have undertaken self ID & all the multiple variations, upon a ‘whim’, to disrupt & dismantle some fundamental sex based rights.

...& breathe.

I would say that experiencing the difference between make and female strength and knowing wha it is like to have a pen is thrust into your body, forced or pleasurable, is a more life experience in understanding male to female rape and what it can mean physically and emotionally.

Isn’t it just the tiniest bit possible that those experiences would give a better understanding of what is needed at a women’s rape centre?

Experiences that MW can never bring to the table.

‘Transwomen are women. I have no uterus. I'm a woman. My boobs aren't real. I'm a woman. It isn't what is under my clothes that makes me one. It's what is in my head.’

Nope. What is in your head does not make you what you are.

In this instance, sex is binary, by chromosome & other metabolic factors. Not my specialist subject but it’s not beyond my comprehension.
..& yes, assignment of genital sex by fleeting glance at birth can allow for mistaken attributes that do not match the child’s sex by chromosomes. but that is about variations to the norm of male & female genitals & maybe the need to announce the sex of a new born.

Gender is a social construct.
Somehow, the term gender has become commonly used instead of sex. It has gone from an academic twist into a recurring blunder that has become common usage

Gender reveal - WTF? To sell balloons & cupcakes?

Truly, have we lost our way ?

OMG why do people bother coming on to make stupid comments that have already been disproved. Try doing a bit of research first.
MW is not, nor has she ever claimed to be a rape counsellor. She is a trainer and an administrator.
She has worked in the field of violence for 16 years.
She began work with Shakti Women's Aid which is a serice specifically for BAME women. She trains people working in the field she doesn't counsel anyone.
She did not as some are still suggesting say women should "reframe their trauma" in the middle of counselling but said that at the end learning about how violence is based in our sexist and unequal culture may help them.
Honestly why not admit she might just be good at her job and she might enable women in restrictive cultures to find escape and she certainly won't damage them.

Pinkquartz has pretty much nailed it, imo, in her post @ 16.13. Wadwha's primary concern does appear to be transgender rights, rather than the rights of women who have been raped and abused. There are so many women across Scotland who are desperately fighting to secure guaranteed, single sex, safe spaces for such women. Wadwha has done everything in his power to thwart that and appears to have a completely different agenda - with some support in high places.

Underpinning this is the brutal reality of sexual assault on both sexes.

There is insufficient sustained public funding & political will to create the space & services to support people who have been raped/sexually assaulted.

There is a need to provide safe space that each sex, men or women, need to get the help that is required. One size does not fit all, not all sex based needs are the same.

It is a blatant idiocy to bind those needs using tick box equality funding requirements. Of course, some people may interpret this political outlook as a derision of sex based rights for women & men.

To whom was your post addressed, trisher?

Nobody has denied that she just might be good at her job. People are saying that she has no right to be in the job because she lied on the application and at interview, and there is no way of knowing whether someone else just might be good at doing the job as well as she has, but with fewer dubious links to other agencies (as per Chewbacca's posts) and who are better able to deal with the media. And who fit the ring-fenced criteria (approved by law) that applicants should be female. Had she applied and been short-listed, then come clean at interview it is perfectly possible that the panel may have decided that her gender status was not relevant, but it was not for her to make that decision and unilaterally over-ride the single-sex designation of the advert.

You haven't explained why you think that someone with such an unusual background is likely to be better placed to run an Edinburgh rape centre than a Scottish woman with a more conventional past? I think MW's life sounds fascinating, but I am not sure why you think it has better equipped her to fill such a role. For avoidance of doubt, I don't think it needs to be a disadvantage, but if I were appointing for that role I would be looking for evidence of experience at similar level, for empathy with clients, for media awareness and probably media training, as well as the standard academic qualifications. The fact that MW has dual heritage and went to a boys' school doesn't seem relevant to me.

Honestly, why not admit that in this particular case she was probably not the best appointment, regardless of her trans status?

‘ He flounced from there and went to the Scottish Green Party where his supporters are Maggie Chapman who just happens to be Edinburgh Rape Crisis' chief operating officer.’

Aha!

I wondered where the Trustees of ERC are in all of this.
Any employee making public comment that brings the organisation into controversy & potential reputational disrepute would have their employment contract reconsidered.
I watch with interest...

The Scottish parliament & political elite reminds me of the heydays of the Greater London Council (GLC).

Doodledog you accused her of only understanding the culture she came from, so I explained she had a wide experience.
She has worked in the field of violence against women for 16 years, isn't that sufficient experience?
I suggest you read about her experience in management here uk.linkedin.com/in/mridul-wadhwa-06b1bb1