Mohamed Al-Fayed, the famous Egyptian billionaire, started his career by selling fizzy drinks in Egypt and ended it as the previous owner of House of Frasers Group including Harrods, the Fulhaml Football, Balgown Castle, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, 55 and 60 Park Lane, and many other companies. He was the father of Dodi Fayed, who died in a car
crash along with Princess Diana, and the founder of Al Fayed Charitable Foundation for disabled children. On the media, he was depicted as a solid example of intelligence,
opportunism, and hard work. However, his credibility has been a subject of question since his death on August 20th, 2024, after when his association with malignant tyranny was revealed.
The hands of Al-Fayed had never been clean, even before his death. He was rejected for British citizenship twice because of his bribes to politicians. His cases continued with the 1988 DTI report, showing that the Al-Fayed family didn’t actually have the economic capacity to buy the House of Fraser with their shares and funds. This led to him getting accused of exploiting his connections with the Sultan of Brunei during the purchase. It is even argued that his transformation from a poor street seller to a billionaire was a result of a strategic marriage with Samira Khashoggi, the sister of Adnan Khashoggi, a millionaire Saudi businessman. Finally, there is the case of the “cash-for-questions” disaster, where Al-Fayed bribed ministers to table parliamentary questions in Fayed’s favor.
The aforementioned events were revealed before his death. The notable feature of his case is that his association with tyranny didn’t end even after he died. Recently, in a BBC interview, confessions were revealed, showing Mohamed Al-Fayed’s sexual exploitation of his workers, namely Kathrine, Jen, Gemma, Lindsay, and Nicole. They all worked with Al-Fayed during different years, yet they all experienced a similar pattern. The five of them claim to have been sexually assaulted many times in their career However, this isn’t their only claim: They also complained about the isolating and stressful working conditions.
Kathrine shared her experience with Al-Fayed in 2005, saying that he was never content with how she dressed or looked. He would call her to his office every day, saying “This doesn’t work,” and would eventually pull her shirt’s buttons, put money in her pocket, and tell her to buy a new suit. Kathrine describes the abuse as an experience that shattered her, clearly showing Al-Fayed’s open mobbing and isolation towards his hand-picked targets. When Fayed tried to rape Kathrine in his office, she managed to put up a fight unlike the other four victims, and managed to save herself. However, soon she met the “punishment” of rejecting Fayed’s predatory by being fired and threatened.
The story continued as Jen, Gemma, and Lindsay, who were sexually assaulted and raped by Al-Fayed, share their experiences. Both Lindsay and Gemma were raped in Paris and heavily threatened if they dared to speak. Gemma explains that Fayed became even more terrifying when he went on business trips with his personal assistants. Lindsay’s experience in Paris was even more brutal as she stated that she didn’t remember anything from her trip to Paris, but she returned with serious injuries. Later she found out that she was heavily drugged by Fayed and locked in a room to be trafficked to Paris. Fayed’s manipulation was further revealed by Gemma as she confessed that even before his assaults, he always told her to see him as a father figure and even ordered her to call him “papa” when they were alone.
Despite his actions impacting hundreds of innocent workers, Fayed managed to keep them quiet with the power of fear and alienation he created. The women in the interview say that their phones were tapped, there were cameras everywhere, and after his assaults, there were countless threats that they were unable to voice, forcing them to believe that they were the only ones experiencing this.
Although trials were initiated against Fayed, the court pushed them aside. Today, the head of the Crime Prosecution Service (PSM) claims that the previous files on Fayed’s accusations of assault were never even presented to him.
The case of Fayed may go on for many more years without a conclusion under the corrupted judicial system. The important thing, however, is for everyone to know that these women were wrongfully silenced and would have been silenced if it wasn’t for Al-Fayed’s death. From now on, the media and the judicial system must pay more attention to harassment going on in workplaces.
Comentários