Gender equality institute director says sexual statements were taken out of context

Talking about sexuality was part of the job at Atria, an institute for gender equality and women’s history, former director Kaouthar Darmoni said in an Amsterdam courtroom on Wednesday. Darmoni was fired by the institute last December, partly because of allegations of sexual misconduct, fostering a hostile workplace, transgressive behavior, poor performance and lying on her curriculum vitae.

She challenged that decision in court. One reason for her legal challenge was her claim that her sexually tinged statements were “taken out of context.”

Darmoni had been the director at Atria since 2019. Last year, an external agency investigated Darmoni’s performance, following complaints that were made about her. The institute’s lawyer cited several statements by Darmoni on Wednesday that as evidence proving her transgressive behavior. She allegedly called some of the workers, “dried up pussies,” and made statements including, “cross your fingers and spread your legs,” in English

And that while precisely an institution like Atria should be “more Catholic than the Pope,” said Atria’s attorney. But Darmoni argued in court that Atria is also committed to sexual well-being, among its other focuses. Thus, conversations about sexuality always took place in relation to work. When she spoke to employees about labia, it was not specifically about theirs, she said.

The two parties clashed over other aspects of the case on Wendesday, too. Atria accused Darmoni of misrepresenting the results of an employee satisfaction survey by allegedly removing statements about feelings of insecurity in the workplace. According to Darmoni’s lawyer, that is nonsense, because there were “different versions” of survey that were passed around to workers.

Atria also stated that Darmoni raised “zero point zero zero” in funding, when this was part of her duties as director. Darmoni’s lawyer claims that she did successfully collect money.

The disagreement about the facts even goes back to Atria’s reasons for ever hiring Darmoni as director. The organization said that Darmoni lied about her CV, and that she was never a gender studies student, even though that was one of the reasons the institute to hire her.

Darmoni’s lawyer argued that gender studies did not exist at all when Darmoni was studying at the Sorbonne University in Paris. However, she did research gender and was thus allowed to mention it on her CV.

The presiding judge will issue a first ruling in the case in two weeks.