I think I've figured out why the Guilty Feminists feel guilty...

[vivariumvivariumsvivaria]

@Glinner sent this round today:

"(From a thread by @Forwomenscot) The CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis has said "Sexual violence happens to bigoted people too. But if you bring beliefs that are discriminatory, expect to be challenged on your prejudice. Reframe your trauma" Apparently, survivors are to be "educated" in this service."

The CEO is Mridul Wadhwa, a male person who does not have a GRC and who believes that rape victims orgasm.

The podcast twitter account is blocking everyone who says "WTF?" etc

A BAME, trans, immigrant who came to Scotland to escape from violence and transphobia, who achieved academically, fosters children and wants to support traumatised women? Useful person to have in your arsenal.

Mridul was privately educated at a Catholic school in India. The family were wealthy enough to fund travel, fees for Edinburgh Uni, and associated living costs.

The Student
'An insight with Mridul Wadhwa into working in a rape crisis centre'
by Karolina Zieba, 5/04/19

(extract)
"The work is incredibly emotionally draining, so Wadhwa has to be balanced and mindful of her own emotional state. The Student asked her what she does to take care of herself: “Well I don’t deal with individual survivors every day, so for me what I do in terms of self-care is a lot of avoidance. I do see survivors – four a week usually – who help me stay connected to the cause…but it’s important to keep it fun. We should be able to laugh and use humour at work. In terms of my team, I try to cook for them once a week or every other week.”

Beyond that, she recommends debriefing: “By talking about what it’s like for you, you are creating that distance and also you remind yourself that the survivors who come to our centre have other lives outside of the centre.”

Most importantly, rape crisis centres are spaces for those affected by sexual violence, most of whom are women. The Student asked Wadhwa if she believes a man could be a successful rape crisis centre manager. She does not: “I don’t think men are ready to go out and set up services of this nature. Women’s aid organisations and rape crisis centres have been set up with the blood, sweat, and tears of women. It’s about the women’s experience of sexual violence. Our workforce is reserved for women only.” (continues)
studentnewspaper.org/article/an-insight-with-mridul-wadhwa-into-working-in-a-rape-crisis-centre

Is Wadwha's successful imitation of Americans valued whilst working in an Indian call centre the relevant transferable skill?

Someone said on another thread that Edinburgh Rape Relief does not have refuges. Which again raises the question of what this organization actually does. Do their employees/members provide counselling or are they just a referral service to other counsellors? Would one of their employees/members provide victim services like accompanying the victim to the hospital, police or trial or is that another organization? I harp on about this because I am beginning to suspect that these organizations do very little which is why they can be so dismissive of women's wishes and hire seemingly unsuitable people.

[quote BetsyM00]FindTheTruth

btl comment here: forwomen.scot/11/08/2021/scottish-womens-aid-have-failed-the-womens-aid-network/[/quote]
Oooh Betsy Littlebrowndog this is gold. For anyone on here wondering what the various crisis centres are saying, it's all here, especially in the comments

This is what Little shared PP:

"I am the Board chair at Glasgow East Women’s Aid and these concerns are front most in our minds. We recognise trans women and would not turn them away but we cannot support them in refuge. We are a women’s organisation and are protected by the Equality Act 2010 which recognises that there are organisation who support women and children specifically. We do not support men, work with men nor do we have any intention of doing so. Women and girls need to have access to safe spaces to be able to survive domestic abuse in all it’s forms. We are reluctantly affiliated to SWA due to the funding given to SWA which they will distribute to us. The women we work with need us to have as much funding as possible to allow us to support them. SWA do not appear to represent the voices of women’s aid and we now need the SG to engage with the wider WA organisations to allow us to be heard and to shape the future more positively for women and women’s aid. We need to come together to actually be heard."

Mridul was privately educated at a Catholic school in India. The family were wealthy enough to fund travel, fees for Edinburgh Uni, and associated living costs.

Sarah Stuart's report on 'Trans Women of Colour' event by Hidayah, "a charity aimed at helping LGBTQI+ Muslim, but ostensibly open to all" featured interview with Mridul Wadwha (Zorastrian and Hindu) and included possible indications of both family wealth and support:

That Wadwha's grandmother likely funded psychiatric approval for hormones etc
That Wadwha announced news of 'transition' at two 20th birthday parties (including invitations to 70 fellow students from Hotel Management course) in order to "take away power" of rejection from them.
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1297441056003444738.html

NB Sarah Stuart also describes visiting Pune in 1998 (similar time to 15 year old Wadwha's letter to mother)

"Pune is culturally and religiously diverse and home to several religious communities: Hindu, Muslim, Parsee, Jews and a famous synagogue, but also Protestant and Catholic churches. It’s also the home of the formidable yogi BKS Iyengar and Sathya Sai Baba’s temple (a friend made a day visit and was told to have an HIV test if she wanted to come back). Sai Baba turned out to be a prolific child sex abuser. ISKCON also has bases there and have a long history of abuses. All of which meant Westerners have been an ordinary sight in the city for a very long time.

Pune was the place where I first learned that internet cafes existed (I didn’t even have a personal or work email at that time) and the travel guide at the time described it as middle class and industrial (it's nowhere near a beach or national parks). Indeed there were lots of luxury businesses which existed for the locals, and the McDonalds franchise.

Most of the rickshaw drivers had English and were entirely used to the sight of Western tourists gadding about town wearing skimpy outfits.

On the other hand, the sight of men walking down the street half-naked, wearing sarong-type skirts and holding hands with each other, was definitely not something we'd ever seen in London. The men were holding hands not as a sign of homosexuality of course, but of friendship.

Anyway what I’m trying to say is that MW experiencing gross daily harassment in the city is stretching it for me and then some."

@toomanytrees

Someone said on another thread that Edinburgh Rape Relief does not have refuges. Which again raises the question of what this organization actually does. Do their employees/members provide counselling or are they just a referral service to other counsellors? Would one of their employees/members provide victim services like accompanying the victim to the hospital, police or trial or is that another organization? I harp on about this because I am beginning to suspect that these organizations do very little which is why they can be so dismissive of women's wishes and hire seemingly unsuitable people.

The yearly Directors' report included with the submitted accounts has details of services provided and monitoring results.

EDINBURGH RAPE CRISIS CENTRE
Company number SC291742
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC291742/filing-history

Charity Details
Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, SC006208
Registered charity from 19 October 1978
"Object:
In particular the Objects shall be: 5.1 to relieve the distress of women, men, boys and girls aged over 12 years who have been raped or who have experienced sexual violence and of their partners, friends and families through the provision of emotional and practical support, information, advice and advocacy; and 5.2 to advance education, through the provision of information, advice and advocacy, among professional bodies and the general public about the causes, nature, extent and effects of rape and sexual violence against women, men, boys and girls aged over 12 years, and ways of preventing or relieving the suffering it causes."
www.oscr.org.uk/about-charities/search-the-register/charity-details?number=SC006208

It’s on forewomen Scotland Twitter find the truth

Thanks @R0wantrees for the extract on the charity details. Re 5.1 I am still unclear how the provision of emotional and practical support etc is carried out and who actually provides it. (Sorry if this is a derail). I have had no direct experience of this.

toomanytrees The PDF 'Accounts for a small company made up to 31 March 2020' p4 onwards has further information:

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC291742/filing-history

Has this been linked here yet?

edinburghrapecrisis.wixsite.com/ercc/post/statement

Someone said on another thread that Edinburgh Rape Relief does not have refuges. Which again raises the question of what this organization actually does.

Refuge provision is for women (and their children) fleeing domestic abuse/violence. Access is made via national helplines who coordinate access.

If that statement is real that android has posted a link to, then I would hope that maybe this person takes on board that their previous actions and words has led to their ambiguous statement being interpreted in this way.

Perhaps they actually need to decide what is needed for this particular role is focus on supporting the rape survivors the best that they can and perhaps their other media engagements should be reconsidered after this incident.

Here's an article about it. Comments are interesting, too.

www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19509343.outcry-plan-educate-bigoted-rape-survivors-trans-rights/

Yeah was just reading that

Comments 🏌️‍♀️🏌️‍♀️🏌️‍♀️

Mmmm

she claimed some of her comments had been "taken out of context", but also wished her language "had been clearer".

This is supposedly a well educated person who is a CEO. They are fully aware that ‘context’ includes previous commentary about topics.

They really need to choose what they are going to be an activist for or learn to qualify their comments with very clear context. Currently, everything they are going to say is going to reflect their actions around their opinions on whether women should have choices about single sex examiners etc.

Maybe eventually ERC will realize that appointing a male who has diverse priorities politically is actually not appropriate. Of course, we have seen this play out in some of the women’s officer roles that have been taken by males too.

This is a person who gets paid a lot.

Just resign and let someone who is not political y motivated help women and girls who have been sexually assaulted

Ooh Herald comments
Lots of men who know what's going on & aren't saying "why aren't feminists doing anything" how refreshing! I always thought it was sport that would burst it open but perhaps I should have had more faith.

This is absolutely shocking. When will people regain their senses?!? I can't believe people can defend this.

[quote ifIwerenotanandroid]Here's an article about it. Comments are interesting, too.

www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19509343.outcry-plan-educate-bigoted-rape-survivors-trans-rights/[/quote]
archive version of article: archive.is/6qBgF

betsy

"Mridul was privately educated at a Catholic school in India. The family were wealthy enough to fund travel, fees for Edinburgh Uni, and associated living costs."

totally see that,

but, someone is spinning Mridul as

"A BAME, trans, immigrant who came to Scotland to escape from violence and transphobia, who achieved academically, fosters children and wants to support traumatised women?"

It looks like a "who's our most feel good story?" by someone at the Scottish Government.

I'm quite old. I liked Drop the Dead Donkey back in the day. The way MW was portrayed by the GF and at Holyrood and in the press (until this nonsense) is a bit, well, like a storyline in DTDD.

It feels like chess, like while we are paying all our attention to the queen something is going to appear out of nowhere that has us in check mate and saying "why did we not see THAT coming?"

I'm finding it hard to articulate, but, I genuinely don't think that MW is the problem. MW is a problem, but there is something bigger going on.

The fact that women's needs and protections and our loud "NO" are all dismissed, our rights simply don't matter, in so many different areas - I mean, it's not just rape crisis, it's Labour/Lib Dems/Greens; the whole of the Welsh parties; policing; justice; health; education; sexual orientation; sport; even the basics of female stuff like having babies has been colonised - that's not all down to MW.

That person is a useful idiot to someone else, with a bigger agenda, who does not think that women deserve our protections in law, does not think that we should be able to say "no" and does not think we are equal to male people. This has been going on for a long time and it is co-ordinated and clever. MW isn't the root of it, what if that person and this situation is just the bait and switch?

Comment from the Herald Article:

"government has given them £millions, including an award of approximately £2m last month -

It will comprise approximately £4.5 million to be split between Scottish Women's Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland - SG website"

4.5million - do we know how many refuges that funds, how many staff and what the CEO earns?

Cos, it strikes me that the volunteers at the refuges I know seem to spend a LOT of time fundraising and paying for stuff themselves.

4.5 million? Really?

RCS was deeply involved in Sturgeon's attempt to get Salmond via the false sexual harrassment claims, acting as a PR funnel for Sturgeon's anonymous accusers. There's a clearly corrupt relationship between the Scottish government and some of the orgs it's funding, with revolving doors between them, and RCS looks like one of the dodgiest.

Any raped women are largely incidental compared to court intrigue, and from those numbers, quite a lot of pocket lining.

Yep, it's a conspiracy theory. But I don't currently have a better explanation. The amount of shenanigans and number of times Rape Crisis Scotland keeps coming up in Scottish politics is surreal.

Sorry to tangent, does anyone know where the link for the job description that MW applied for that said women only is?

From MWs statement that was issued to 'clarify' remarks made on the podcast:
"If we want to be a truly feminist organisation, we too need to be an anti-racist organisation, we need to be an organisation that stands up to homophobia, ableism, classism and yes, transphobia."
No standing up to sexism or misogyny in that list? Wouldn't that be a priority for a truly feminist organisation?
I was going to say MW 'forgot' to include 'sexism' but in a statement responding to accusations of misogyny? While claiming they're 'truly feminist'?
Either MW is absolutely clueless and left it off because it didn't occur to them or MW deliberately left it out. Either way, it underlies that MW is completely ill-suited to position of CEO.
Anyone who thinks that it's a rape crisis organisation's place to reprimand rape victims for their trauma responses has no business being anywhere near it.

The Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre is now advertising for a COO. The "role requires an experienced and effective feminist leader" and they "especially welcome applications from... transwomen" yet "Only women need to apply for the above posts under... the Equality Act".