Foremost, we would like to issue a content warning for this piece addresses domestic violence, prejudicial injustice, suicide attempts and sexual assault statistics. If you identify with any of these issues, please look to the resources listed in the final segment of this article: Resources We urge you not to play ignorance to this article for your silence favours a system that tampers with innocent lives. Our primary concern is with Aarti Mukhedkar’s campaign (https://chng.it/ryky7gNSGw) to reform the University of Edinburgh’s redressal system. Please sign her petition/s and show your support at the protest on the 9th at Bristo Square. You're not "just one person", you're the person to make noise on behalf of those silenced in the margins.
Be Loud Until There is Solidarity Over Despair.
However, Aarti’s case is not an isolated incident. Evidently, the education system was built broken for academia fails sexual assault survivors on a universal scale. Aleyna will demonstrate this in her personal account, followed by Grace’s exposé on institutional ignorance.
Prevention Through Intervention: Aleyna’s Account
Mukhedkar’s case exemplifies how injustice for one is a disservice to all. By the same token, when a survivor fights for themselves, they fight for all, hence my decision to share my personal experience.
My start to university was postponed a year due to systemic denial of my trauma. Once I was finally allowed to advance my degree, I stalled my application to pre-empt re-experiencing academic injustice. This hesitance was coming from someone who had been saving up for university since she was seven and has since woken up at six daily to secure those dreams. Rape culture, championed by the education system, possessed the power to scrap those dreams in an instant. If it wasn’t for Strut Safe, I wouldn’t have accepted my position at the University of Edinburgh.
Whilst in my first year of college, I braved telling my mentor that I tried to end my life because I felt it was the only escape from my abusive relationship. I told her that breaking up with him was not a possibility considering we sit next to each other in class every day. That he had already isolated me from my friends and antagonised me in our year group so I had no one else to confide in. That I had applied to other colleges but he wouldn’t let me go unless he had unrestricted access to my wardrobe and phone. That I was financially reliant on him for he cut me off from my mum and punished me anytime I dared to go to work. That I couldn’t concentrate in class because he’d spam my phone with threatening messages that I had no choice but to respond to. That I spent my every study period having panic attacks in the toilets because I was too scared to see him. Conversely, that he was the only person I wanted to see because he was the only one that knew what he did to me.
My mentor made me block him, delete all his texts and expunge the evidence that my legal justice depended on. Whilst I am not conspiring that she did this knowingly, it is a testament to how unprepared educators are for assault cases. She also made me stay seated next to my abuser in class to divert attention to the matter, as though this was just a petty college fallout. I guess rape isn’t enough of an offence to warrant removal from a class but firing spitballs is.
The college’s reputation was on the line but the only thing I had left to lose were the chains to my abuser. They threw away the key in the name of saving face, not lives. I knew that they were capable of safeguarding people because they were protecting his dignity from the start. It became clear to me that they would rather believe a rapist than a potential liar, for a man can legislate his anger but mine is merely accusatory. I filed my report.
The police’s involvement threatened the anonymity of my story, so the college staged a plan that would keep me ‘safe’ on their grounds. They formulated a timetable that would keep me from seeing my rapist around, which of course failed under the conditions that the school was small and he was privileged with predatory freedom.
Their delayed response to the domestic officer’s warning that my case was severe (my life on the line) was to force me to stay at home whilst my abuser studied in school. They denied me my right to education because I didn't have the financial or ethnic means that shielded my abuser. Ever since I got the call, I've been in survival mode; a constant state of fight or flight. Initially, I chose flight. I ran out of work before my mum could see me - she had made a habit of waiting outside the entire day, everyday to guard me. Somehow I felt more safe on the dark canal in the rain with nothing but a t-shirt and leggings on than I did in school. I found more shelter under the tunnel with the needles than the classroom with the rapist. So I stayed there. In retrospect, I ran away from home in protest for my right to education. On Wednesday, I will resume my protest for that same right. Please join me in turning my flight into fight.
Rape culture blames survivors for not fighting back in emergency, only to pathologize them when they fight in recovery. So when you witness someone being unapologetically open about their experience, you’re witnessing outstanding bravery. Protests are fuelled by such heroism, making them an empowering environment for anyone who has a gram of respect for others’ lives.
This country prides itself on the freedom of education and yet so often forgets it remains a luxury as long as it is under the Patriarchy. They decriminalise assault, making justice an anomaly. I shouldn’t have to navigate my future around what university is less likely to make their reputation paramount to my life.
Evidently, there is a consensus that campus is a hotspot for assault so why is it also severely unprepared for handling such cases?
Activation Through Education: Grace’s Exposé
The system is not only flawed but it is also threatening. A system that prioritises reputation over lives is deadly and therefore needs to be uprooted and reformed. We deserve and require a system that is sympathetic to those they have a duty of care for and a system that actively wants justice for their students. We do not have this at present. Instead, we have a system that tries to silence us and will put their efforts into covering their own backs rather than fulfilling their moral obligation towards people who depend on them.
A survey conducted by Revolt Sexual Assault in partnership with The Student Room exposes the gruesome truth that 62% of students and graduates have experienced sexual violence in UK universities (Revolt, 2018). This is a statistic that will continue to grow if universities continue to allow rape culture to thrive.
What is wrong with the Redressal System as it is?
Breach of confidentiality and power imbalance:
The accused is shown all evidence that the victim has provided, arming them with an unfair advantage when it comes to the trial as they therefore can calculate the best strategy to discount the evidence. On the other hand, the victim is left in the dark as to what evidence or counter arguments the accused has provided and is only told whether their abuser has been found guilty of the assault/assaults or not.
“Innocent until proven guilty”:
The idea of the accused being presumed innocent until proven guilty places the victim in a position of being assumed or treated as though they are lying. Although false accusations are a serious matter, in the past 20 years only 2-10% of accusations have proven to be false so it is not nearly enough to be a valid justification for treating victims as liars and making the situation even more traumatic (Kay, 2018).
The burden is placed on the person making the complaint:
The victim is burdened with answering every question precisely and repeatedly. Many crucial details are often almost impossible to remember due to PTSD and the time between the event and the trial which is often months or even years. Any inconsistency in a person’s account down to any small detail will be used against them.
Complexities of individual experience:
86% of female and 60% of male survivors are raped by someone they know (Rape Crisis, 2017). This means that a person’s rapist is likely to be a partner or ex-partner, a family member, a friend or colleague etc where their relationship to the person will be complex and emotional, often involving gaslighting and manipulation meaning no situation is black and white and the relationship can be used against the victim once again making the victim feel like the one on trial as well as the fact that they may still be suffering from the psychological abuse.
Lack of trauma-informed external training:
Schools and universities do not have adequate trauma-informed training so it is no surprise that they may be misguided when it comes to dealing with the emotional aspects of traumas such as sexual assault. Furthermore, with the awareness that legal justice is rare (In 2020, 51,367 victims and survivors of rape who reported what happened never saw someone charged), places of education have even more duty to support their students. Legal justice is not the only way a person can feel a sense of justice, emotional justice including validation of feelings and experiences is incredibly valuable and with the correct training is something that can be provided.
Lack of support in making formal complaints:
Universities are often more concerned about their reputation than the safeguarding of their students often not only refusing to support the student but even seemingly siding with the abuser and deterring the victim from taking their case any further.
This is only a short and inexhaustive list of the failings of the redressal system and does not cover the extent of any individuals experience with either their university, school or the legal system but is hopefully enough to highlight the necessity of action.
What you can do:
Attend protests:
We urge you to find out when local protests may be happening and take part in as many as possible. Join the protest in Bristo Square in Edinburgh on the 9th February 2022, starting at 11am. There is immense power in numbers.
Start action early:
The more students that are in their earlier years at the university and even prospective students that take action to change the system and support survivors the more long-term action that will take place which will lead to long term change. There is only so long that universities can continue to show performative support over genuine change.
Consistency in action:
Don’t allow the system to tire you out (as they will try to) and don’t lose hope. History has shown that consistency in action does facilitate change.
Professional action:
The burden to demand change should not only be on students, staff and alumni must support their students.
Contact funders:
Universities are not only funded by their students but also by major companies. Find out where your university gets their funding from and let them know what they are funding and supporting. They don’t want the bad press.
Contact the press:
Ultimately your school or university is a business first and foremost. By contacting the press, it is possible that they will lose funders who will want to avoid being guilty by affiliation as well as losing prospective students. This targets the two things that universities have shown to be their priorities: money and reputation.
Collaborative efforts between societies:
The more societies that connect to fight the same issues of injustice, the more power the students have. We need a united force.
Our goal of a fair and sympathetic redressal system within places of education is not out of reach. It is something that we deserve and is long overdue.
Even if your personal human rights are not being directly denied, use this as an opportunity to amplify your voice against injustice. Join us at the protest on February 9th, starting at 11am at Bristo Square, Edinburgh.
Sexual violence at UK universities statistical report: https://revoltsexualassault.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Report-Sexual-Violence-at-University-Revolt-Sexual-Assault-The-Student-Room-March-2018.pdf
Resources
I. Strut Safe
Instagram: @Strutsafe
Call: 0333 335 0026
Times: Fri-Sat 19:00-03:00
Sun 19:00-01:00
Email: strutsafe@gmail.com
II. Rape Crisis Scotland
Website: rapecrisisscotland.org.uk
Call: 0808 801 0302
07537 410 027
Times: 18:00-00.00
III. Men’s Advice Line
Call: 0808 801 0327
Times: Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00
IV. Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Hotline
Call: 0800 027 1234
Times: 24hrs
V. Men Standing Up
Call: 0300 303 0167
VI. Anah Project
Call: 0845 960 6011
VII. Black Minds Matter UK
Website: blackmindsmatteruk.com
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