The wrathful extremes

The Daily Mail takes a cold hard look at the career of Mridul Wadhwa…while still, very unfortunately, using the deceptive pronouns. I realize that use is compelled in some way, but it needs to stop. It weakens any reporting on the subject that does it.

It was a post which was expressly advertised as being for women only but, three years ago this month, a biological male was installed in it. It required a compassionate figure to lead a charity providing a ‘safe space’ to help rape victims get through the worst experience of their lives.

The successful candidate was bullish and strident. Mridul Wadhwa labelled rape victims bigots and transphobes if they doubted whether a man identifying as a woman should run a centre helping women recover from male violence.

As for any members of staff who harboured such notions, Ms Wadhwa is on record as saying: ‘Fire them.’

All this was known within months of the 46-year-old taking up the post of CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC). What was not fully understood until much more recently was the wrathful extremes to which she would go to rid her workplace of those who did not share her views on gender politics.

A damning employment tribunal judgment this week made that crystal clear. Here was a biological male working in a women-only space who, according to the tribunal, was on a mission to ‘cleanse the organisation of those who did not follow her beliefs’.

We knew he was bad but he was worse than we knew.

Yet the eight-day hearing earlier this year presented a chilling reality. A government-funded charity was doling out doctrine where it once offered comfort.

Simply, people were being asked to accept that politics – Ms Wadhwa’s politics – took precedence over a woman’s rape ordeal.

A man’s fantasies about himself matter more than a woman’s needs after being raped.

6 Responses to “The wrathful extremes”

Leave a Comment

Subscribe without commenting