Source: Women are Human
UK — Scotland. The male CEO of a rape crisis refuge is facing social media backlash after remarking during an interview that survivors of sexual violence may be bigots with “unacceptable beliefs” who need to “rethink [their] relationship with prejudice” if uncomfortable in refuge alongside male individuals who self-identify as women.
About 45 minutes into the 27 July 2021 episode of The Guilty Feminist podcast titled “Creating Our Own World with Kemah Bob and Mridul Wadhwa,” special guest Wadhwa reassured survivors of sexual violence that Rape Crisis Scotland is truly “non-judgmental”:
When anyone who phones – because it’s open to anyone who lives in Scotland to use the helpline – they will be received, and held and respected for whatever they’re thinking around the experience of sexual violence. It truly is non-judgmental. I know the space that I work in, … International Helpline for Scotland, is a really non-judgmental space. You will be heard.
Wadhwa additionally acknowledged that regaining a sense of control is integral to recovery from sexual violence:
Sexual violence is the loss of control. And everything that happens after that in terms of your recovery, only you can control. That is your right, I think that’s the gift that we must give ourselves if we’ve experienced sexual violence, because the abuser has taken away that control. Everything that happens after that should be yours.
As the discussion shifted to focus on transgender issues, Wadhwa appeared to contradict these earlier statements, arguing that “therapy is political,” and if rape victims’ trauma leads them to “unacceptable beliefs that are discriminatory in nature […], expect to be challenged on your prejudices.”
There’s a group of women that I’m really interested in who are affected by this debate. And I say ‘debate’ very generously because I don’t believe it is. Debate is when there’s equality of voices and respect. But this is about who has power and who doesn’t.
But there are a group of survivors who will be watching and seeing what is being played out about spaces that they’re potentially going to use. And be informed or misinformed about what actually happens here and be, possibly be, fearful.
And I think if you’re worried about these things, about inclusion and what trans inclusion means within women’s organisations, and if your local women’s organisation or Rape Crisis Centre or Women’s Aid is openly trans-inclusive, and you just don’t understand, reach out to them and ask those questions. I think it’s important to know that we see you as an individual.
And we come as survivors with experiences that often feel to the outside world as holding prejudice. So we might have fear of men of a certain ethnicity, we might have fear of trans people, and it could be linked to an experience of trauma. I think it is, it is okay to hold those things as long as you are willing to acknowledge that, in support, we will accept that.[…]
But I think the other thing is that sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well. […] But these spaces are also for you. But if you bring unacceptable beliefs that are discriminatory in nature, we will begin to work with you on your journey of recovery from trauma. But please also expect to be challenged on your prejudices, because how can you heal from trauma and build a new relationship with your trauma, because you can’t forget, and you can’t go back to life before traumatic incident or traumatic incidents.[…]
But if you have to reframe your trauma, I think it is important as part of that reframing, having a more positive relationship with it, where it becomes a story that empowers you and allows you to go and do other more beautiful things with your life, you also have to rethink your relationship with prejudice. Otherwise, you can’t really, in my view, recover from trauma and I think that’s a very important message that I am often discussing with my colleagues in various places. Because you know, to me, therapy is political, and it isn’t always seen as that.
Women across Twitter are expressing disgust with Wadhwa’s shocking statements, many under the hashtag #AskRapeCrisisScotland.
“How dare anyone tell survivors that a trauma reaction to male people is unacceptable prejudice and why is this tolerated in the violence against women sector?” For Women Scotland, a women’s rights campaign group, tweeted.
How dare anyone tell survivors that a trauma reaction to male people is unacceptable prejudice and why is this tolerated in the violence against women sector?
— For Women Scotland (@ForwomenScot) August 9, 2021
“I worked in mental health services for many years not once did I challenge anyone I supported political or religious beliefs that disagreed with mine,” a woman tweeted. “It wasn’t my role to do so. Neither is it his.”
Another woman was swiftly blocked by The Guilty Feminist’s Twitter account after tweeting in response to an announcement of the podcast episode: “Your glee about using hurt women with few other options as props in your little edgy game repulses me.”
Wadhwa was hired to head the rape refuge in May, although the job listing specified that “only women need apply for the above posts under Schedule 9, Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010.” Wadhwa, who has no Gender Recognition Certificate, previously secured the position of manager at Forth Valley and Stirling Rape Crisis Centre by concealing his sex.
Last year, Rape Crisis Scotland, led by Wadhwa, opposed an amendment designed to protect the right of female rape victims to choose to have their intimate medical examination conducted by a female forensic team. Holyrood passed the legislation in December. Many female rape survivors cheered the decision as a safeguard of their right to bodily autonomy, but Wadhwa expressed condemned the law, organizing a “call to action” against what he deemed a “dogwhistle – a covert signal – to anti-trans campaigners.”
Wadhwa has also admonished the European Network of Migrant Women for tweeting support for the crowdfund created to help migrant women who were being sued by Jessica Yaniv for refusing to perform a Brazilian wax on Yaniv’s genitals.
According to datasets of violent sexual crime, 90% of the victims of sex crimes are women and girls, and 99% of those imprisoned for perpetrating violent sex crimes are male. Studies find that males who have undergone ‘gender-affirming’ surgery on their genitals do not have a lower rate or different pattern of sex crimes than other males.
Katie Dolatowski, who is male and self-identifies as a woman, was arrested in 2018 after haunting supermarket restrooms to record voyeuristic video and sexually attack prepubescent girls as they used the toilet.
Following Dolatowski’s confession, a spokeswoman for Women and Girls in Scotland told the Times:
Over 90% of sexual crimes are committed by males. It is extremely concerning that in this climate, many female-only spaces can be accessed by males if they simply state they are transgender.
This horrific sexual assault of a child is a reminder that sexual predators will take advantage of any access they can get, and we should be doing all we can to minimise the risks of such assaults.
