The luxury department store Harrods is a London icon with 200 years of history, in which Tourists often buy a little something to take home a bag with their famous logo. and many British families go in only once with strict orders from our parents not to touch anything because they can’t pay for breakages or, indeed, anything here.
This month, that unattainable glamor has evaporated. A BBC investigation has transformed it into a symbol of misogyny, coercion and abuse of power. Dozens of women who worked at Harrods accuse its former owner, Mohamed Al Fayedof having harassed, raped or sexually assaulted them when they worked at the company. Furthermore, according to their testimonies, other people in the company facilitated and covered up the crimes of the Egyptian billionaire who died last year at the age of 94 and sold the warehouse in 2010 to the state investment fund of Qatar.
The BBC documentary reveals Predator at Harrodsand in a five-part podcast for the series World of Secrets, They are having great repercussions in England and could soon have them in France given that Al Fayed, who received the prestigious Legion of Honor, also owned the Ritz Hotel in Paris, a house in St Tropez and the Villa Windsor, the place where a woman says he raped her and eight more accuse him of attempted rape.
The current owners of Harrods, who say the company today is very different from the one Al Fayed controlled for 25 years from 1985, has condemned the actions of the former president: “An individual determined to abuse his power.” “We also accept that during that period we failed our employees, who were its victims, and for that we sincerely apologize,” Harrods says in a statement to the BBC. The company invites victims to contact them to reach financial compensation with them and is investigating whether current workers were accomplices of the predatory behavior of its former president.
Testimonies of 20 women, some with faces covered and names changed, have come to light in the BBC documentary. Since its transmission, About 200 women have contacted the legal platform ‘Justice for Harrods Survivors’. The platform’s lawyers are going to represent around 60 women in a lawsuit against the current owners of Harrods. They do not rule out taking action against others involved which could include people who helped ensure that few women came forward or doctors who allegedly performed screenings on victims including testing for sexual diseases for women working in administrative tasks.
What is on my mind a lot is that perhaps the excellent investigation by the BBC I would never have come out without the prior work of a journalist freelanceKeaton Stonewho describes himself as an “investigative journalist by accident.”
As the couple told the program Woman’s Hourone day when Keaton is rewriting his wife, Sophia’s, resume to highlight something he thinks should sell better, being a personal assistant to the president of the best luxury department store in the world, Sophia broke down and told the story of abuse by Al Fayed that he had kept secret.
Other women also decided to tell their experiences to correct the image offered in the representation of Al Fayed in the series. The Crown, as a businessman friend of the princess of wales who mourns his son Dodi after his death in Paris. “We can’t hold Mohamed accountable, because he’s dead, but we can make sure people know the truth about this man“, Jen said, waiving her right to anonymity. to tell his experience with Al Fayed after having kept it secret for 35 years.
