women's officer Mridul

[fatblackcatspaw]

twitter.com/Dis_Critic/status/1323357925222408192

Womens lives are enormously affected by many issues that a male will have absolutely zero experience of. I'm not going to list them; we know what they are. They factor in to almost all aspects of a woman's life and don't impinge in the slightest on a male life.

I find it unbelievably insulting, patronising and crass for a male to stand as woman's officer.

This character is going to precipitate the downfall of the SNP. Bring it, the boil needs lanced.

Minimum requirement: an ability to empathise with female people, understand what they face navigating a male-dominated world and an ardent desire to campaign for their rights.

This candidate has shown, in interviews, articles, speeches, panel discussions and last but not least behaviour, a profound unwillingness and most likely inability to do any of the three.

Grand choice for a women's officer.

There are men and women in the constituency who can do the job. I hope for the sake of the women and girls there, that one of them will.

I think Madigan demonstrated, in detail, their interest in women's issues were restricted to the ones that someone male born found relevant, while refusing to involve themselves in anything specific to female born people on the grounds that it was uninclusive of those born male.

Issue in a nutshell. This does not work for female born people, because this is not about a desire to support and represent female born people but about recasting female into a male controlled, male centred concept.

Profoundly sexist and the exact opposite of what these political roles were created to do: they were not new and exciting ways to celebrate expanding the wonderful horizons of male people at the expense of obviously far less important females.

However I'm sure the party will be very caring about women's needs going forward, so long as those women are careful to erase any parts of themselves or their voices or feelings or thoughts or experiences that don't fit with the narrative and inclusiveness for males. Or want to talk about anything that male people don't officially grant recognition to as sufficiently important, or impacting on them, or evidenced to their personal satisfaction.

Must dig out my bustle and corset and white gloves, I'm going to be needing them since we seem to be backing fast through the Victorian period for women's rights and heading for the dark ages.

It's ok Butterer , back far enough through and we'll get to Boudicca. Less nice scarves than chariots and women getting really a bit terse. If not miffed.

My only consolation is becoming women's officer was Madigan's downfall. The sunlight was too bright.

Let's open the curtains and see what happens.

What is Madigan up to these days?

@EyesOpening

What is Madigan up to these days?

I've no idea. But there were some women going on social media claiming madigan had sexually harassed them.

@EyesOpening

What is Madigan up to these days?

I wondered that too.

So is this true - they’ve become a Woman’s Officer? If so it’s quite a provocative move by the SNP. Does anyone know what Midril’s background is that meant they had the right credentials to get the job at the Rape Crisis Centre? Do they have a Linkd in? I would imagine you’d need a very good track record to become a Manager of such a centre.

I wonder if they were out in their previous working roles and if so, why they chose to keep it secret when applying for this current sensitive position?

I watched their interview with Fox Fisher ages ago and they come across as a very articulate, calm and dare I say ‘matriarchal’, middle-class woman. They reminded me very much of a supremely confident but kindly therapist.

It’s one thing keeping your transgender status a secret when applying for a job in say Marks and Spencer but when you’re applying somewhere where you will be managing a facility that directly deals with vulnerable rape victims - it’s pretty bullish to think you’re the best person for the job and to not reveal the fact that you were born a man. It really does smack of someone prioritising their own sense of importance and career progression over other people’s feelings and vulnerabilities - exactly NOT what you want for someone doing that job. Was a political career their ambition all along I wonder?

Their partner has close SNP links. I understand they worked at Shakti an org which works with ethnic minority women and wormed their way in their and then into Rape Crisis. But I do not get how lying by omission in your job application hasn't got them sacked.

I see that they worked for Shakti for 11 years so they’ve certainly worked hard and are established within the sector. Interestingly they said they came out to colleagues in the first few weeks of working at Shakti so it wasn’t disclosed in that interview either (gleaned this from their SNP page)

So here’s some questions I’ve been wrestling with. Are we being unreasonable on this thread for being critical of someone not disclosing their trans status in a job application? Is it a ‘human right’ not to disclose this? Should it be within a person’s right to not disclose if they have a Gender Recognition Certificate? (But Mdiril did/does(?) not have a GRC so they were not legally a woman in the eyes of the law). And should there be an exception to any legal or permitted non-disclosure if you are going to be working in a service that is ‘women only’ under Paragraph 1 Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010.

I am not criticising this person for who they are and the obvious good work they’ve done but surely it would have been more honest and respectful to have given their colleagues and their service users the choice to decide whether they would be comfortable with this situation (particularly the service users) Or is this something personal that we have no right to know about.

And becoming a Women’s Officer. Did anyone else put themselves forward I wonder? Maybe the SNP see them as a future leading light in a forward thinking, LGBT+ Government. Their own Petra de Sutter perhaps?

I see that they worked for Shakti for 11 years so they’ve certainly worked hard and are established within the sector. Interestingly they said they came out to colleagues in the first few weeks of working at Shakti so it wasn’t disclosed in that interview either (gleaned this from their SNP page)

So here’s some questions I’ve been wrestling with. Are we being unreasonable on this thread for being critical of someone not disclosing their trans status in a job application? Is it a ‘human right’ not to disclose this? Should it be within a person’s right to not disclose if they have a Gender Recognition Certificate? (But Mdiril did/does(?) not have a GRC so they were not legally a woman in the eyes of the law). And should there be an exception to any legal or permitted non-disclosure if you are going to be working in a service that is ‘women only’ under Paragraph 1 Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010.

I am not criticising this person for who they are and the obvious good work they’ve done but surely it would have been more honest and respectful to have given their colleagues and their service users the choice to decide whether they would be comfortable with this situation (particularly the service users) Or is this something personal that we have no right to know about.

And becoming a Women’s Officer. Did anyone else put themselves forward I wonder? Maybe the SNP see them as a future leading light in a forward thinking, LGBT+ Government. Their own Petra de Sutter perhaps?

Does anyone know what Midril’s background is that meant they had the right credentials to get the job at the Rape Crisis Centre? Do they have a LinkedIn? I would imagine you’d need a very good track record to become a Manager of such a centre.

I wonder if they were out in their previous working roles and if so, why they chose to keep it secret when applying for this current sensitive position?

The current position is not the one where the employer did not know about Mridul's trans status.

Mridul's LinkedIn page shows that the job as manager at Rape Crisis Forth Valley started in August 2018.

Before that, Mridul worked as training and volunteer coordinator for Rape Crisis Scotland from June 2014 to August 2018, delivering training across the country and campaigning for inclusion and equality.

For this work, which was by all reports very well done (probably because it legitimately allowed a focus on the things Mridul is passionate about), the inaugural Scottish LGBTI Awards honoured Mridul with the Outstanding Campaigner Award in September 2015.

As you can see from the acceptance speech, Mridul was out as trans at this point and from the work Mridul did, it's clear that this job is also not the job in question. (It's a bit rambling the speech, but it gives an insight into where Mridul's passion for campaigning for migrants and refugees comes from. It's the part of the speech that starts at 1:30 minutes into the video with this "I have been more traumatised being a migrant, let's say, than being trans.")

The photos of the event suggest that Mridul has known some of the most important players in Scottish politics for at least five years, and is known to them as a capable and hardworking campaigner. That relationship is likely much longer than that - for instance is Mridul giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee on the proposed Bill on Forced Marriage in November 2013.

Seven years plus as a respected campaigner across Scotland with good working relationships with many of our most important politicians is probably why our protests will continue to fall on deaf ears. Even if we are right in highlighting Mridul's opposition to upholding women's sex-based rights in relation to all males, including those who have transitioned.

Okay, back to the genuine occupational requirement to be female and the employer.

There is only one more employer Mridul worked for in the Women's sector and that is Shakti Women's Aid, an Edinburgh charity who focus on supporting women, children and young people with a BAME background who have experienced domestic violence.

Their front page today features the following statement:

Women only need apply under paragraph 1 of Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010.

Mridul first worked for Shakti Women's Aid from December 2005 to March 2007 as Information and Education Officer and then again as Information and Education Officer and Children and Young People's Services Supervisor from September 2008 to April 2017.

As you can see, this employment precedes the Equality Act being made law, and although the Sex Discrimination Act that was in place beforehand did allow for a Genuine Occupational Requirement to be female, the Gender Recognition Act 2004 actually overrode this (back then the women tasked with safeguarding women's rights in the Labour Government worked very hard to sabotage this vital protection for women and girls for the benefit of males who identify as trans.)

It's therefore much more plausible that Shakti in 2005 is where the situation is claimed to have happened where the employer did not realise Mridul is trans.

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Tl;dr: As Mridul had gained public acclaim as an ardent equality and inclusion campaigner to be nominated for the first Scottish LGBTI Awards in the summer of 2015, it's highly unlikely that the start of Mridul's employment with Rape Crisis Scotland is the employment where the employer was unaware of their prospective employee's trans status.

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P.S. Having said all of the above about Mridul being a capable, and by all reports effective and successful campaigner, it is unclear to me, given the reported performance at the hustings, whether Mridul is all that suited to being a politician.

Let me just say it like this: I was not happy with our local Green Party candidate for the 2019 election, because he is bitterly opposed to women campaigning to uphold their rights and not afraid to show it. But even though as a young gay man he's mostly very active in the local LGBT community, he gave an impassioned speech about the environment and so made it relevant to the party he was standing for and for the locals he wanted to vote for him.

Mridul, despite having far more experience than that young Green candidate, did not manage to find a way to connect to what is a constituency with a fair number of Scottish farmers.

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P.S.S. and FYI, there's also an interesting Twitter thread here collecting a few articles by/interviews with Mridul that explore the backstory.

Wadhwa was invited to contribute to Maria Miller's 2016 enquiry.

See page 31 where they said the genuine occupational requirement that allows women only jobs is

"discriminatory to transsexual people especially trans women. I genuinely believe that there is no space for it in the gender-based violence sector and that it has no place in violence against women work. I was unaware of its existence until a few weeks ago. I have worked in the violence against women sector since 2005 and have never known for it to be used. I am disappointed to think that someone has the right to refuse work to me and others like me in my sector just because they think that I might not be a woman."

Link to document here.
publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmwomeq/390/390.pdf

Why why why women's stuff?

Why not support men who are victims of sexual violence? A topic which is much less discussed and with much less awareness?

The vast majority of attacks on transwoman will be based in homophobia. Male experience is simply different to female for an array of reasons.

Speaking generally... Why do men show such a lack of interest in helping other men? CSA, metal health, high suicide rates, the particular issues that gay men/ men who are perceived as gay face? Especially in things like prison. Sport... Justin fashnu I think is still the only top tier uk footballer to come out while playing...

Why do men not help other men?

And why do so many men insist that either we sort their problems out for them, or open the doors for them to come and get loads of kudos for doing the stuff that women set up, raised money for etc etc.

I mean it's shite.

It's extraordinary. The statement that they had no idea until a few weeks before the enquiry that there even was an exemption in the Equality Act FOR WOMEN. Whilst blagging a job in the sector and then never once giving women only needs a seconds thought.

The fucking act is written the way it is because women need it. Then someone wails about how they don't like the idea of women excluding them and whoosh, it's just brushed aside. That law can go poof, of course it can.

Unbelievable. Or actually far too fucking believable.

So appalled that so few people bothered to defend women's rights in that appalling enquiry. It was all handed over on a sodding plate.

And then the utterly repellent answer on Twitter about checking in job applicants pants. It makes me feel sick that someone so nasty to women is fawned over in women's services.