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Feminist academic Raquel Rosario Sanchez doesn't shy away from writing about ugly stuff.
She deals with prostitution, coercion and intimidation.
When she started her PhD on women and violence at Bristol University just over two years ago, Raquel felt lucky to be exploring these complex issues in a supportive and (she says, pointedly) ‘grown-up' academic environment.
She certainly didn't imagine she'd end up being threatened with violence herself — nor that the university she so respected would, she claims, utterly fail to protect her.
For after attending a single meeting of a feminist organisation, she found herself caught in the so-called ‘TERF war' between women's rights campaigners and transgender activists.

The term TERF stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist, and is shorthand for women who are deemed unwilling to recognise trans women as sisters.
Raquel Rosario Sanchez, 30, (pictured) reflected on getting caught in the so-called ‘TERF war' between women's rights campaigners and transgender activist, while doing a PhD on women and violence at Bristol University 
The slur was used against Raquel — and as a result she was threatened and hounded online, simply for what she insists is ‘doing my job'.
‘If someone like me cannot work without fear of intimidation, what message does it send?' says Raquel, 30.

‘On social media I have read that I should be punched. Trans activists have called me scum, trash, bigot — and targeted every feminist event I've participated in. There have been protesters in balaclavas. It's a campaign of vilification.'
She claims her feminist student society has been required by the university to hire its own private security guards to host speakers on campus.
‘Isn't that insane?' says Raquel.

‘The university authorities have behaved appallingly. They let this happen.'
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‘This' is an astonishing two-year fiasco with, at its core, a row between feminist thinkers like Raquel and transgender activists. Now Raquel is speaking out because she is taking legal action, accusing the university of failing to protect her from a campaign of bullying.
Over the past few years, debate has raged about proposed changes to gender recognition laws which would allow people to ‘self identify' as either sex.
The issue is complex, but in its simplest terms, the trans lobby believes those who self-identify as women are women, and to challenge this is transphobic.
Some feminist campaigners argue that allowing self-identification is dangerous as it could potentially be abused by men to gain access to female-only spaces.
Author JK Rowling (pictured) was branded a TERF after defending the notion that the sex we're born with cannot be chosen 
Last month, author JK Rowling became the latest high-profile person to be branded a TERF after defending the notion that while gender can be chosen, the sex we're born with cannot.
Her views led to an extraordinary spat, drawing in everyone from crime writer Stephen King to Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, and even broadcaster Jonathan Ross (who came out in support of Rowling, only to bow out of the debate after his daughter gave him a stern talking to).
This week, Rowling was one of 150 high-profile signatories to an open letter denouncing what they called such examples of ‘public shaming' and saying it threatened freedom of speech.
Britain's university campuses are among the most intense battlegrounds in this war, with some fearing pressure from the trans lobby encourages academic institutions to abandon free speech.
The Students' Union at Bristol voted for a blanket ban on feminist speakers deemed to hold 'transphobic' views, amid the controversy over Raquel.

Pictured: Transgender activists in London
In 2018, amid the controversy over Raquel, the Students' Union at Bristol became one of the first to vote for a blanket ban on feminist speakers it deemed held ‘transphobic' views.
Previously, veteran lesbian activist Linda Bellos was due to speak at Cambridge University, but a college feminist society revoked the invitation after she said she would be questioning trans politics.
Raquel's story began three years ago when she left her native Dominican Republic for Bristol University's Centre for Gender and Violence Research.

She had completed a Master's Degree in women, gender and sexuality studies and worked on women's refuges at the Dominican Ministry for Women.
She arrived in the UK in November 2017. Keen to get to know others in her field, she attended a couple of conferences in Gloucester where she met a feminist writer arranging a meeting in Bristol for an organisation called Woman's Place UK (WPUK).
A range of experts would discuss gender identity, safe spaces for women and other issues revolving around proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
The previous Conservative government, under Theresa May, had drawn up proposals to allow people to change their birth certificates without a medical diagnosis.

It was a political and social hot potato — and, Raquel argues, a fascinating issue, from an academic viewpoint.
Raquel (pictured) said that she hoped to get to know people in her field, when she attended a WPUK meeting 
The WPUK meeting would examine the proposed changes, and particularly the impact on single-sex spaces such as female refuges.

Would Raquel like to be involved, even to chair the meeting? ‘I thought it was a good way of getting to know people in my field. It happens all the time — a group of middle-aged women meet up for a conference.'
Except critics identified WPUK as a hate group, claiming it uses its feminist label as a cover for bashing transgender rights.

Raquel insists not. ‘Any changes to the law, as were under discussion at the time, impact on women's hard-won rights. This needs to be talked about. Why is it transphobic to say so?'
Indeed, the proposed changes proved so contentious that leaks over the summer suggest the current Government may quietly ditch them.

Still, just being involved with WPUK was enough to kickstart two years of misery for Raquel. ‘Even though I did not even speak at the meeting, it started the whole thing off.'
First, activists wrote an open letter opposing the event.
Raquel's name on the publicity material meant complaints were directed at university authorities, too.
Raquel (pictured) filed a formal complaint to the university after hundreds of activists online began inviting people to be violent towards those who had attended the WPUK meeting
‘This was two weeks after I started at the university.

Soon hundreds of people were involved. It was online at first, but it was horrifying. They were inviting people to come and punch us, to throw eggs, recommending physical violence. What I was watching was the normalisation of the abuse of women. In a democracy, that shouldn't happen.'
So the week before the meeting on February 8, 2018, Raquel filed a formal complaint to the university.
The meeting itself went ahead without incident — protesters could not find the location, she says, so instead congregated with placards in Bristol city centre.
The university seemed to agree there were questions to answer, and started disciplinary action against two activists, claiming the open letter contained ‘false information', was an attempt to ‘suppress free speech' and ‘brought the university into disrepute'.

One investigated was a fellow PhD student called Nicci Shall, who also goes by the name Nic Aaron. At the time, Nic and Raquel shared an academic supervisor. Nic — who uses the pronoun ‘they' and the gender-neutral title Mx — is a high-profile trans activist.
Raquel's supporters claim the student was in a group involved in hijacking another Bristol feminist meeting in April 2018.
Raquel claims every feminist meeting she attended over the next 18 months was targeted by activists, leaving her feeling intimidated
A protester (who some attendees claim was Mx Aaron) took exception to being called ‘she', shouting: ‘She?!

I'm not she, you f***ing c***! My pronouns are they.' That protester was later removed by police, but the disturbing scenes were captured for a Channel 4 documentary.
Such strength of feeling was, however, not a one-off. Over the next 18 months, Raquel claims, every feminist meeting she attended — around seven — was targeted.
‘Somehow they always found out where we would be. I felt intimidated. There were people in masks, which is ridiculous —especially when I knew they had been advised to deal with terfs by punching them and throwing eggs. Online messages would say: "Punish them. Give them hell."
One meeting, in May 2019, was disrupted by an activist ‘wearing head-to-toe black, plus a balaclava'.
Security escorted the protester out, but this, Raquel suggests, was a sign things had gone too far.

‘At protests, the university would have campus security, but also a police presence, to protect staff from their own students. How is that normal?'
How you quantify what ‘abuse' Raquel suffered is tricky. She was not physically attacked.
Much of the targeting online was not directed at her as an individual.
Supporters of Mx Aaron were outraged by the university's (pictured) decision to investigate Raquel's complaint
But it's clear she did feel under threat and she has documentation which shows the university authorities were aware of this.
On the other hand, the trans community clearly felt aggrieved too.

Trans activists maintain they have a right to protest — and supporters of Mx Aaron were outraged by the university's decision to investigate Raquel's complaint at all. If anything, the protests intensified over time. An online campaign accused Bristol of transphobia, alleging Nic had been threatened with expulsion, something the university denies.
Having started proceedings, the university seemed unsure how to proceed.

At the first hearing, Raquel was cross-examined by the defendant's barrister despite being advised by the university that she wouldn't require legal representation. Nic Aaron's barrister was Raj Chada, Labour Party politician and one of the country's leading criminal defence lawyers, who specialises in defending protesters, notably the Extinction Rebellion activists and the UK Uncut protesters who occupied Fortnum & Mason.
Then, halfway through and before Nic was questioned, the hearing was halted, then postponed twice before being dropped altogether.

The vagaries of Bristol's disciplinary process are not public, but Raquel's criticism is that it was protracted, unfair and not transparent.
Raquel revealed that she's still a target of bullying and feels she can't do anything to stop it.

Pictured: Trans activists protesting 
She also claims the months of delay gave the trans lobby time to continue its campaign against her.
Even the disciplinary hearings were not immune from protests.
‘The university lawyer walked me out so I wouldn't have to walk through that alone, and I had to arrange for a friend to pick me up.'
Finally, last summer, Raquel was horrified to be informed by the university that, after 18 months, it had terminated the disciplinary process.

‘They didn't decide there was no case to answer.
‘They concluded the investigation after deciding there was a case to answer.
‘They said they had decided to terminate "for reasons unrelated to the merits of the case",' she explains.
‘I asked what that meant and they couldn't tell me. To me, it looks like they decided to bow to pressure and just hope the situation goes away. But it hasn't gone away for me.'
She says she is still a target of bullying and feels she can do nothing to stop it.

‘The biggest responsibility lies with the University of Bristol. By deciding not to get involved, the university is effectively saying "we are not going to protect our student".'
Raquel (pictured) claims that her entire academic career is under threat because she stood up for what she believes in 
Amid the stress, her studies suffered, she claims, and she failed to achieve the targets necessary to receive funding.

‘My whole academic career is under threat — because I stood up for what I believe in.'
This, she says now, has brought her to the conclusion that legal action is the only way forward.
She has some convincing allies.
Dr Emma Williamson, Head of the Centre for Gender and Violence Research (and her PhD supervisor), made a public statement condemning the way Raquel's complaint was handled.
‘As members of staff we cannot in good faith advise students to have confidence in the university's own complaints procedures if they do not deal with complaints in a timely, safe, transparent and fair way.

I do not know what I can honestly say to a student in future who is making a complaint about being bullied and who is fearful of their safety.'
Raquel's solicitor Peter Daly, of Slater and Gordon, said: ‘Every student has the right to pursue their education in an environment safe from bullying and harassment.

Our client argues she was not granted this right.'
Nic Aaron was offered an opportunity to take part in this article, and declined.
A spokesperson for the University of Bristol said: ‘If Ms Sanchez has concerns about how the university has handled these matters, she may seek review through the Office of the Independent Adjudicator or take legal action if she considers it appropriate.

Our internal processes are confidential and therefore we are unable to comment further.'
Raquel insists going to court is the only route left. ‘These protesters want me, and everyone like me, to shut up, cho thuê xe ô tô tự lái but they can't bully us all into silence.'