New CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis

[TheFleegleHasLanded]

I struggled to even come up with a title for this thread as I am so enraged I know I will get deleted and even banned if I say what I really think.

twitter.com/EdinRapeCrisis/status/1389112490215288832?s=20

And thanks R0. I'm getting confused now as to whether a director is a board member or staff? Either way that sounds high for what I presume is a small organisation.

I've had a bit of involvement with small charities and I've seen how you're forever scrapping for funding and that, if you don't follow the money, you've basically had it. I can quite see how you might have to make a change of direction and how not everyone will be on board.

Sorry R0 cross post. That's what I'm thinking.

And thanks Biscuits - I realise I might be going off on a flight of fancy but I just remember being quite shocked at how ruthless some small charities have to be just to survive. They're not nice, fluffy organisations - they can't afford to be.

With regards Rape Crisis, it will have been captured by trans ideology/intersectional feminist inclusion policies some time ago.

Mridul Wadhwa 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.

The policies and atitudes which enabled Wadhwa's appointment as CEO will have been embedded by Wadhwa.

“The policies and atitudes which enabled Wadhwa's appointment as CEO will have been embedded by Wadhwa.”

The ultimate in job satisfaction...

I think where I'm going with this is that 'capturing' doesn't necessarily mean getting everyone on board with the thinking, it's about where the funding's coming from. It doesn't make things any less shit but I still find it helpful.

Boards usually plan for up to a third of their members to be due for election at any one time, it would be unusual / bad planning for two thirds to go, though it could happen for reasons that weren't necessarily bad.

Whilst you do have to jump through hoops for funding, these are usually in relation to organisational systems and project plans. This would include staffing, but wouldn't usually look at the background of board members unless something else threw up concerns. I've known local authorities to step in to try to sort out boards gone bad occasionally.

Board members are nearly always unpaid, they may be called directors, trustees, committee members. Some may be doing very little other than attending a meeting once a quarter, though really to fulfill your obligations you need to do much more than this. Some boards are very weak though and do little to hold the ceo to account.

Previous thread, CharlieParley wrote,
(extract)
"... the inaugural Scottish LGBTI Awards honoured Mridul with the Outstanding Campaigner Award in September 2015. www.equality-network.org/scottish-lgbti-awards/winners/

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.")
www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10153715084087378

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 - here for instance is Mridul giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee on the proposed Bill on Forced Marriage in November 2013.

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." (continues)
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4068462-womens-officer-Mridul?pg=2

Some boards are very weak though and do little to hold the ceo to account.

This is a very important point. The same can also be true of school governors in respect of the head teacher.

An utter disgrace.

@stumbledin

The point I was making about the new appointment to Rape Crisis England - which is the federation of rape crisis centres it is exceedingly odd not to mention women. This is because the federation was formed out of the need for women's services, that currenlty women's services are under attack. It is not "just management". It is absolutely vital that this organisation (as with Women's Aid England) has a clear and principled stand on women only services. And should not be frightened to say so.

It is shameful. Part of their role will be to comment on issues eg the appointment of a self identifying trans woman to a rape crisis centre offering women only services.

Seriously disturbing not to understand that.

Why would anyone think it is just "management".

I do absolutely agree with this. When I read it, I actually couldn't help wonder if it was trying to find a tactful way to be able to refer to men aswell, not just trans women, to avoid whataboutery.

The first full "newsletter/ training info" leaflet Operation Encompass put out on email had a huge piece about physical and coercive abuse of men. Which, although this absolutely does happen and should't happen, I felt was a bit rich, borderline offensive, for the first mailshot given that the majority of domestic abuse victims are women and children.

The message communicated doesn't reflect reality for victims.

2 directors left in October 2020
2 directors left in February 2021
2 directors and the secretary left in April 2021

This would shout red flags to ofsted in a school if it were the equivalent of Senior leaders.

So is there something we can do about this?

If anyone has any sound ideas about who to write to with our concerns, I’m right there. Sadly I’m not in Scotland, and I’ll hold my hands up to not knowing all that much about the charitable sector.

Here's an informative blog, how the centre changed from being a woman's centre to one including boys and young men, and all trans people -

edinburghrapecrisis.wixsite.com/ercc/post/lgbt-history-month-ercc-s-lgbt-history-and-journey-towards-silver-chartermark

I see Edinburgh Rape Crisis have now deleted their tweet celebrating Mridul's appointment.

@PearPickingPorky

I see Edinburgh Rape Crisis have now deleted their tweet celebrating Mridul's appointment.

Yes I noticed that. Lots of other tweets seem to have disappeared where it said something along the line of MW stands up for all women “include it trans women and BME”. (See other thread about racist statements about women).

Also from my nose on Twitter, and I answer to my own post above, it seems various organisations are hopefully on the case with getting this appointment challenged. It is clearly unlawful IMO.

If anyone has any sound ideas about who to write to with our concerns, I’m right there. Sadly I’m not in Scotland, and I’ll hold my hands up to not knowing all that much about the charitable sector.

With Scotland's elections imminent and given the amount of funding by Scottish goernment it is a much needed and urgent challenge to candidates.

Very discriminatory towards a male Candidate. Not that I care really but if an organisation is going to apply an exception under the equality act it then needs to follow it otherwise it looks like to me this was done to give the successor the best chance possible with no pesky men applying.

When I seen this on twitter this morning it set my nerves off. I'm really struggling to put my words down coherently about how I feel about this. That some deranged human thought this person would be a one size fits all. Its also incredible they think this ticks the box for BAME women.

I cannot understand why people are centering the need for males to have significant roles with in womens rape crisis centre. Why would a women who have been violently raped by a man want to talk to a man about what had happened to her? Its perverse. Its fucking perverse. Its perverse that this person thinks they can and should lead a historical run by women for women rape crisis centre. They should be ashamed. They all should be ashamed. How dare they.

Its sickening.

I cannot understand why people are centering the need for males to have significant roles with in womens rape crisis centre. Why would a women who have been violently raped by a man want to talk to a man about what had happened to her? Its perverse.

Not only that, at a point of accute vulnerability and trauma, women are being coerced to deny that men are not women. This is a form of abuse by proxy whereby the organisation (set up to support women who are victims of male violence) perpetrates further abuse including the removal of women's capacity to withold consent and to have boundaries.

Some women will want to talk to a man. One pp said she'd prefer that.

But that should be an opt in choice, and those men should be extremely well trained. They should also know that no matter how they identify, some people will find them triggering.

Meanwhile this person demonstrably lies, was apparently bored and useless to at least one victim, which makes their career progression all the more sickening.

Apart from all the screaming alarms and outrage about the obvious inappropriateness of this appointment, the sexism is glaringly obvious.

This was a job aimed at recruiting a woman. However, no woman was to be found, as sufficiently good as Midral. So in the whole 50ish% of that region, there were no 'other' 'women' good enough.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/snp-facing-legal-action-over-breach-of-all-female-shortlist-wjbnxmgft

I hope they don't get away with this. It's absurd.