#BoycottRadioBeirut: Pub Threatens Survivor After Sexual Abuse on its Premises

First, this is the story and status posted by a young woman who worked at Radio Beirut for 3 years, Dayna. I will post her own words about her own story below:

Dayna:

I was an employee of Radio Beirut for 3years, I invited all members of my community to the space considering it safe since I worked there.

On Feb 6th, 2019 I was in the radio booth hosting the jam session along with owner and 2 sound engineers. One of the radio Beirut house band members (an employee) out of nowhere forced his fingers into my vagina to “get me in the mood to perform” with him.

I was so shocked and frightened that I simply turned red and asked him to never impede on my personal space again, he proceeded to mock me and call me too radical for his freedom of artistic expression.

I wanted to end the conversation so I said “whatever you’d like to call it is fine with me all I ask is that you not violate my personal space” and he proceeded with more comments on how radical I am.

I turned around in hopes of ending the conversation where he then proceeded to push his body against mine from behind.
I went outside of the booth to calm down and spoke to my friend about what happened. She told me to calm down since I was shaking and I went home early. A week later I proceeded to inform the owner of my resignation offering my 1 month notice (I work on Monday & Tuesday nights, meaning it is 8nights in total although the harasser only is hired on Tuesday night. I even promised to train my replacement.

He told me that he would speak to the harasser and tell him the following:

First quote: “it is not 50 years ago anymore, you can’t do this”

Second quote: “(name of harasser) you can’t do this if you expect to be famous”.

I was absolutely astounded by the reward system the owner used.
I asked for no consequences to the harasser at all other than him not to be hired in the last 4 nights that I would be hosting the jam sessions.

The owner on the 2nd night hired the “alleged” harasser and used “I did all I could, he promised never to do it again:” as the reason for hiring him. All I requested was to leave with dignity and some form of comfort.

I asked if he would accept to force his daughter to introduce onto the stage a man that once harassed her to which he retorted “don’t bring my daughter into this, that’s different”.
I also then asked if it were too difficult a situation to not hire my harasser on my final nights since I had no intention of going public or in hurting the establishment itself due to the actions of one employee. I said “I am not comfortable being here with him.”

His response “if you’re uncomfortable, you can leave” I said “alright” which led the owner to call my harasser into the same booth that I was violated in, saying “you have to face your aggressor”.

I left calmly and without a scene, no yelling, no crying, nothing that can be referred to in the misogynistic terms as a hysterical woman.
The moment I left they began to badger me on WhatsApp. (the quotes are all from the screenshots of the conversation)

Starting with ”you are unethical because you left work”, “You must meet your supposed aggressors”, and “And I’m not the victim?”
The comments only got worse and built up to:

“This is becoming childish and I’m unable to determine now whether this is actually sexual harrassment or just taking a piss in the day and age of ultra feminism”. He then blocked me so I do not retort and said” [10:53 PM, 2/26/2019]: I’m blocking until we all meet face to face

[10:53 PM, 2/26/2019]: Your harrassing me now

[11:03 PM, 2/26/2019] Btw . This is starting to feel orchestrated. So let’s meet with all of the accused before this goes father than it should. I’m not a God and can only do so much to resolve the problem. This cannot be done unless we all meet and speak.”

The owner after blocking me, proceeded to call and tell all of my friends whom are activists and leaders in our community both in Lebanon and as far as New York to inform them of his version of the situation before I could, although I had no intention of telling them anything.

To everyone out there,

I wanted to leave with dignity; all that was required was for the establishment to not hire this man for 2 more nights. They could not refrain and then proceeded to host an event for women to speak out about men on international women’s day.

The owner called them allegations and did nothing to comfort me although I even sent him a code of conduct he could have had his employees sign to which he responded to with

“I am too busy”.

What I, and other women harassed at your establishment are demanding is simple:

A public apology to all women who have faced similar sexual harassment situations at your establishment

To promise reform: You will need to take a training, along with your team; on sexual harassment and implement policies and mechanisms that protect your female clients and employees from having to face such violations with no consequences to the aggressors.

I have decided to speak out today because I refuse to stand idle as RadioBeirut shamelessly attempts to turn a profit on Woman’s day.

This post made my stomach turn and I was boiling with anger and disgust at the abuser. But, I was also incredibly grateful that Dayna chose to share what happened to her, in a country that almost always blames the survivor, not the abuser. Dayna’s brave decision to let the rest of us know what kind of place Radio Beirut and its management is, will help save others from having to go through what Dayna had to.

The Vile Response

We’re used to hearing misogynistic stuff like the below from macho-men with micro penises who beat their women to death, or the priests and sheikhs that defend those abusive men, but many Lebanese pub-goers were surprised when an establishment that portrays itself as inclusive, progressive and alternative, vomited this disgusting statement on their page:

Since the baboons handling this page might sober up and delete this masterpiece of tone deafness and women hating, here’s a copy-pasted version:

RADIO BEIRUT:

“Dear sonic youth [edited..] and friends of Radio Beirut,

Radio Beirut never has and never will condone sexual harassment at our noble establishment. We will continue to be known as a safe cultural space of all-inclusiveness and humanitarianism using the power of music to build bridges and bring people together.

[edited]…..
This recent allegation of Radio Beirut condoning such behavior by one of its resident musicians is unfounded, baseless and shameless. It can only be seen as slander and defamation.

Furthermore, any persons found to have conducted any form of harassment whether sexual, physical, racial, verbal or otherwise will be immediately expelled from the venue and persona non grata. This always was and always will be the standards we uphold.

[in addition…]
Those who are bashing us for victim blaming need to understand we are not blaming the “so-called victim, there never was a victim. Simply speaking, this allegation never happened and you can draw your own conclusions once all the information is released!
stay tuned.

[in addition…]
Thanks for all those who have sent messages of support and reasonable inquires into this unusual, absurd and unwarranted attack on us. A further statement with details and clarifications regarding this matter will be provided shortly, ……stay tuned and impartial until the facts are all out in the open. Reactionary trolling doesn’t mean you are in the right!

Thanks for all those who have sent messages of support and reasonable inquires into this unusual, absurd and unwarranted attack on us.”

It’s like with every “in addition” edit, whoever was typing that dug themselves into a deeper hole of hysteria and guilt. We know Dayna isn’t lying, but even if not a single word of what she said was true, this “statement” is unacceptable, disgusting, childish and just plain stupid.

The management should have immediately fired the abuser, instead of giving these bullshit excuses and to add insult to injury, threatening the survivor in the above word vomit instead of apologizing to her and owning up to what they let happen in their establishment.

ISF Priorities Need Fixing

It’s unbelievable how many times we all get strip-searched right in front of Radio Beirut by crooked cops trying to entrap young men and women for having a joint with them. Imagine if all that time and effort was spent investigating physical and sexual abuse on that same street instead, and helping make us safer instead of terrorize us.

I hope with Rayya El Hassan as minister of interior now will help shift the security forces efforts from entrapping innocent young people who have harmed no one, to making sure assault is punished and abusers face justice, instead of keep their job and gloat about their abuse using the Michael Jackson defense “oh, he’s an artist”. No, you’re a fucking piece of shit and being in a band doesn’t let you put your slimy fingers where they’re not supposed to go.

It goes without saying, but BOYCOTT Radio Beirut, and if you’re an artist who’s scheduled to play there, there’s plenty of venues that don’t defend sexual abusers and threaten sexual assault survivors right on the same street. Don’t tarnish your good names by being associated with this petty, women-hating establishment.

UPDATE: they issued an official apology, but still doesn’t want to fire the assaulter. This happened after artists scheduled to play there started severing ties and public outrage ballooned beyond what the management expected.