Mridul Wadhwa

Mridul Machindra Wadhwa (born 1978) is an Indian-born Scottish Chief Executive Officer of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre who was appointed to the post in May 2021. A transwoman, they were formerly active in the Scottish National Party, a candidate for the party in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, before moving to the Scottish Green Party.

Quotes

• I just can't see anyone abusing self-declaration. It's a statutory declaration, and it's just not going to happen. To be honest, I think the anxiety around that is similar to what I would call false allegations of rape. It's a non-threat.
• Trans people have to get letters from a number of sources, they have to live in their gender role, to the satisfaction of other people – people who cannot themselves, in my view, explain what gender means. The bureaucracy is unnecessary, as if we cannot be trusted with our own identities, when everyone else is trusted with theirs. This whole process, as it stands now, is very paternalistic, like "we can't trust you to make your own decisions, so we need other people to confirm it".
  The whole system is transphobic. It's a system that, because of the way it is legislated, says, ‘we don’t believe you, you’re not valid, you have to conform to some kind of expectation about what a real woman or a real man is’. No other woman or man has to do that.
  • "The Gender Recognition Act, transphobia and Scotland", Holyrood (30 April 2018)

• 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.
  • From an unidentified interview, as cited in "Protests over trans woman heading rape crisis centre", The Times (19 May 2021)
  • In the original source (a 5 April 2019 article in The Student newspaper of Edinburgh University), the cited comment is preceded with Wadhwa saying: "I don't think men are ready to go out and set up services of this nature". At the time, Wadhwa was manager of the Forth Valley Rape Crisis Centre in Stirling.

• So we might have fear of men of a certain ethnicity, we mighty have fear of trans people. [...] Sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well. It is not a discerning crime. 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.
  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 reframe your relationship with prejudice.
  Otherwise, you can't realy, in my view, recover from trauma and I think that’s a very important message that I am often discussing with my colleagues at Edinburgh Rape Crisis.
  Because you know, to me, therapy is political, and it isn’t always seen as that.
  • Interviewed on The Guilty Feminist podcast, as cited in "Outcry over plan to educate ‘bigoted’ rape survivors about trans rights", The Herald (Glasgow, 12 August 2021)

Quotes about Mridul Wadhwa

• There was considerable cursing from Mridul Wadhwa and a lot of mention of 'terfs' (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and transphobes in a disparaging way [...] Mridul Wadhwa referred to those who inquired about whether or not she had a GRC and stated that this was a transphobic question and Mridul Wadhwa said "f*** them" and described these people as terfs. During the question-and-answer session someone asked what was the best way to get staff on board with the inclusive policy. Wadhwa responded very bluntly, saying: "Fire them."
  • From an Employment tribunal judgement describing an event at Edinburgh University in March 2023, as cited in "Sturgeon trans ally’s answer to gender critical women: Fire the terfs", The Times (21 May 2024)
  • Roz Adams, a former support worker at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre had won her claim for "constructive dismissal." In a written submission to the Westminster parliament's Transgender Equality Inquiry (dated 21 August 2015), Wadhwa said they had transitioned in India in 2001.

• However Wadhwa identifies, Wadhwa is a trans-activist who is prepared to harass and dismiss women who believe that biological sex is a reality.
• There is no room for discussion; one must bow down to a belief system that maintains gender trumps biological sex every time, that a man who says he is a woman knows best what rape victims need. Actual women do not get a choice.
  • Suzanne Moore "Another win against the trans lobby shows why Starmer’s gender plans are all wrong", The Telegraph (21 May 2024)