Mridul Wadwha and the thought police

What kind of mind can deny that right to request a female examiner to a shaking, traumatised woman on the worst day of her life when that person is also the CEO of a rape crisis centre?

That's not what that row was about as I'm sure you know. It happened because a gender critical MP hijacked the bill in an attempt to insert a transphobic dogwhistle. As the head of Rape Crisis Scotland explains:

Johann Lamont MSP has this week lodged an amendment to the bill, to change the reference from “gender” to “sex”. It is not clear what she is trying to achieve with this – some commentators see this as a development which would exclude trans women doctors from carrying out forensic examinations.

If this is the intent of the amendment, it will not achieve this. No concerns about the use of the term gender were raised when the original bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament in December 2013; the terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably. Replacing one word with another will have no impact on the availability of female doctors.

The real issue

The amendment misses the point – the key issue facing women in Scotland accessing forensic examinations is not trans women carrying out these examinations. As far as we know there are no trans examiners in Scotland.

The real issue is that in four out of ten examinations women face being examined by a male doctor. If they request a female doctor, they may be told that this is possible but will involve a considerable delay. Most women are so desperate to wash that they then agree to the exam being done by a male doctor. This is unjust and unfair.

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/forensic-medical-services-bill-important-step-forward-treatment-rape-survivors-scotland-gender-row-misses-point-sandy-brindley-3061543

if people were making derogatory remarks about transpeople then it is her duty to address that.

''Derogatory remarks'' like ''I'd rather discuss my trauma with a biological woman, please'', and ''I'd rather a biological woman examines me, please'' after being raped by a man?

And how can MW deny women wanting a female examiner when they have been raped or sexually assaulted

You never answered that barley ?

I would hope that if someone genuinely felt too traumatised to work with a trans counsellor Mridul would find a way to facilitate that - I doubt she does much face to face work in her current role anyway. But she runs a trans inclusive project, if people were making derogatory remarks about transpeople then it is her duty to address that.

Obviously this person has not in the past facilitated female only provision for traumatised victims. They have also spoken ouragainst women having the right to have a same sex medical examiner after rape. So why do you think that this person is a suitable CEO for a rape crisis centre role which was supposed to be restricted to a female only applicant.

Gotta ignore that barley person

So talking shite

I think she probably does care about victims of sexual violence, but it seems to me that her care is uneven. I don't believe that she truly cares for women she regards as bigots. To me, that is a very substantial problem with her holding the position she does (I would say the same of anyone if they were making political points about victims/survivors, btw).

I doubt she cares very much at all about the people who have spent the last two years bombarding her with abuse on social media, or pwho invent lies about her such as those claiming she complained to the police about Nicola Murray or those who think they have the right to castigate her for using sacred iconography from her religion and culture.

I would imagine in her work she is very different. It's common when doing that kind of work to have to work with people who hold prejudices, whether based race, religion, sexuality or transgender status. And they will be challenged, that is normal in the sector because you cannot have users whose prejudices make the space unsafe for others. But that doesn't mean you don't care about them - far from it. I've worked with long term rough sleepers covered in BNP tattoos, and I cared about them, and talked to them about it, and made clear what was acceptable on the project and what wasn't and actually over time sometimes they modified their views.

I would hope that if someone genuinely felt too traumatised to work with a trans counsellor Mridul would find a way to facilitate that - I doubt she does much face to face work in her current role anyway. But she runs a trans inclusive project, if people were making derogatory remarks about transpeople then it is her duty to address that.

I also suspect she may care more about trans issues. Which is fine in theory (she has every right to be passionate about that), but represents a conflict of interest in practice.

I don't accept it represents a conflict of interest as it happens. But she worked in the sector for nearly 15 years without anyone even knowing she was trans so that suggests she is more motivated by supporting survivors of sexual violence than cheer-leading for trans rights.

Well barley in Scotland you don’t get funding unless you are trans inclusive
That’s how it works in Scotland

Sorry for us women in Scotland who have no place to go but hey you crack on barley.

Not caring about us women in Scotland

MW left SNP as the whips supported the amendment that woman in Scotland after they have been raped or sexually assaulted to have a female forensic officer examine them

You crack on barley not caring about women in Scotland

Crack on. We women in Scotland see you and we see MW

Isn't the key point that MW is a known liar, MW lied to get the job?

I also suspect she may care more about trans issues. Which is fine in theory (she has every right to be passionate about that), but represents a conflict of interest in practice.

What do you think, @barleybadminton ?

Are you hoping to bill us for this comparative religion course? Because I didn't sign anything and I'm not paying.

What kind of mind can deny that right to request a female examiner to a shaking, traumatised woman on the worst day of her life when that person is also the CEO of a rape crisis centre?

There are images of Kalli without a severed head I believe. The choice was deliberate and threatening. No I think it is inappropriate to post it in this way.

Kali is almost always pictured with a severed head in Hindu iconography. Why should she sanitise her religion and culture because it upsets you?

Would a person who cares for women insist on being the counsellor in this situation?

When my daughter was 14 she was raped by 4 men in scotland, where JK lives. When we specified the need for a female counsellor our agencies thought it was ok for a self ID Twoman with no GRC to counsel her as TWAW. Do you think maybe JK knows more than you do #AskDanielRadcliffe

What kind of mind can deny that right to request a female examiner to a shaking, traumatised woman on the worst day of her life when that person is also the CEO of a rape crisis centre?

No more needs to be said. I think we just post this over and over again.

MW resigned from a political party to demonstrate their opposition to a female rape victim having a legal right to request that a fellow female is the one to perform an incredibly invasive medical examination to collect evidence of the rape.

What kind of mind can deny that right to request a female examiner to a shaking, traumatised woman on the worst day of her life?

I think she cares for all women, including trans women. She wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the sector if she didn't.

I think a centre determined to follow their political goals aligned with the current government will hire whoever is politically beneficial to them. Women are less inclined to ignore this person’s background compared to males heavily invested in this movement and will continue to call it out. While other people will keep trying distractive techniques.

There are images of Kalli without a severed head I believe. The choice was deliberate and threatening. No I think it is inappropriate to post it in this way. Particularly since women have been on the receiving end of death and rape threats for not agreeing that males can be woman. And this person would be well aware of those images, they work in services dealing with violence against women.

You are the one that keeps missing those connections barley. Almost like your history of using denigrating and demonising language against posters on this board.

Please do maintain this direction of posting. But I am going to stick to discussing this person’s current and historical treatment of women.

I think that person does not give one shiny shit about women. That person has made that clear many many times.

If MW cared for women on any level they wouldn’t have taken a job designated for women when they are both biologically and legally a man

Nor would they make comments about women needing to be “educated” because they don’t want to be counselled by a man

Or be outraged that female rape victims should have the right to a biological woman to examine then after a rape

Yes the care just shines out!!!

Tell us barley do you think that Mridul Wadhwa has cares for women?

I think she cares for all women, including trans women. She wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the sector if she didn't.

Of course people on this thread, including me, would not be questioning their discussions on racism. Well, maybe some would if they have information that is relevant. But it is not the focus of this thread which is this person’s attitude toward women.

So to be clear you have no objection to her invoking Kali when she is discussing the racism she suffers? It's only when she's angry about transphobia this is a problem. How strange, gender critical people keep insisting to me that the gender critical movement is not transphobic, so I would have thought you'd be applauding her.

They agreed at the time that there were a few very specific cases where they could see it was still OK for the employer to do this, and one of them was where a rape crisis service wanted a woman to work directly with survivors of sexual abuse. So there was a specific exemption for cases like that. This has survived through various changes in the law since then, replacing the original act

Exactly, Gaspode.

And the extraordinary thing is that despite this pedigree, certain groups of people are hell bent on shaming women for asking that this extremely compassionate and inclusive exception is applied as it was intended to be, to protect traumatised women. They are suggesting that women who do so are motivated solely by general bigotry. And if we object to a circumstance where someone has deliberately sought to subvert and evade this exception, that we could only have some nefarious, bigoted motivation again against that particular person, probably because we’re racist.

It’s jaw dropping. It is profoundly mendacious and misogynistic.