S Poddar
It is difficult to think of a darker shadow befalling the gilded halls of luxury and opulence that once defined Harrods. Thanks to a BBC investigation, however, a horrific tale of abuse has been unearthed as numerous women accuse former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed of sexual assault and harassment while they worked at the venerable department store.
While more than 20 former employees of Fayed, including top executives, testified to horrific abuse that they endured and related incidents that occurred over more than a few years in locations as disparate as London, Paris, Saint-Tropez, and Abu Dhabi, the report about Fayed’s manifold abuses brings an ugly picture of man who abused his power and position to prey on vulnerable women even after selling Harrods in 2010 and losing life last year.
Detailed testimonies of the victims feature in the BBC documentary “Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods,” some of whom agreed to appear on camera. For example, one woman spoke anonymously about Fayed: “He’s a monster; he’s a sexual predator with no moral compass.” She described how he raped her as a teenager in his Park Lane apartment. Three other women came with similar accounts of being raped by Fayed in the same apartment.
Another woman who claims to have been raped by Fayed, going by only the pseudonym Gemma, said she was raped at his Villa Windsor apartment in Paris and afterwards forced to wash herself with disinfectant. She said, “Obviously he wanted me to erase any trace of him being anywhere near me.”
The film argues that Harrods had been involved in the cover-up, creating a climate of fear and silence by its victims. The owners who currently run the store have expressed “utmost dismay” over the affair and pleaded for forgiveness from their victims. However, all this does more than bring some seriousness to question the company’s interest in maintaining their employees well, in cleaning up the predatory practices carried out by their previous owner.
From its investigation, the BBC uncovered a dark chapter in Harrods’ history. The matter speaks as much to the horrific abuse that may lurk at the heart of any one of the world’s most elite institutions, as it does to its practice of believing and respecting the victim. Indeed, it is a sordid example of what can happen when one person is accorded unchecked power over others within the sort of badly managed workplace that makes abuse possible.
