LONDON: A legal team representing women alleging rape and sexual assault by the late Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed said on Saturday it received over 150 new enquiries, including from women accusing the former Harrods owner.
The BBC released a documentary and podcast on Thursday in which Fayed is accused by multiple women who worked at the London luxury department store of sexual assault, including five accusing him of rape.
The new enquiries included a “mix of survivors and individuals with evidence” about Fayed, the legal team confirmed to AFP, after announcing it was representing 37 women accusing Fayed of sex abuse.
Comparing the scale and nature of the case to claims made against fallen figures like Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, lawyers said the allegations included some girls who were just 15 and 16 at the time of the alleged assault.
The team is bringing claims against Harrods for enabling the “systematic abuse” of its employees, many hired as Fayed’s personal assistants and secretaries, over a period of 25 years.
The accusers say assaults took place at Fayed’s apartments in London, residences in Paris, and on trips abroad from Saint-Tropez to Abu Dhabi.
The upmarket department store, which Fayed sold in 2010, said it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations and had received new enquiries as well since the BBC investigation.
The Harrods website now has a form that victims can complete, adding that it had an “established process” for those affected to claim compensation.
The legal team also said it was representing women who were employed by the Ritz hotel — which was also owned by the mogul.
A former manager of the women’s team at Fulham FC, also owned by Fayed until 2013, said the players were “protected” from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur,” Gaute Haugenes, who managed the team from 2001 to 2003, told the BBC on Saturday.
A Fulham FC spokesperson said the club was “deeply troubled and concerned.”
“We are in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected,” the spokesperson added.

KABUL: With few employment possibilities available to Afghan women under Taliban rule, Ayesha Azimi was able to remain professionally active as a religious studies teacher — a role she is now struggling to keep in the face of a recently announced “vice and virtue” law.
The rights of Afghan women have been curtailed since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan three years ago. Women and girls have been gradually barred from attending secondary school and university, undertaking most forms of paid employment, traveling without a male family member, and attending public spaces.
The only remaining public educational institutions allowed for women have been madrasas — Islamic schools that focus on religious training. Under the new rules introduced last month by the Taliban-run Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, even religious schools are now difficult to access.
Azimi, who was teaching at a madrasa in Kabul, said that she can no longer go there on her own when her husband is at work.
“Last week, when I was going to the madrasa, I spent more than an hour on the road to get a taxi, but the drivers didn’t want to give women a ride, fearing the Taliban. I had to call my husband to come and pick me up with his motorbike,” she told Arab News.
“The Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice staff in the area told taxi drivers to not pick up any woman without a male guardian otherwise they will be fined and punished.”
Like many other Afghan women, Azimi believes the rules are reducing their value as members of society.
“Most women have been observing proper hijab, particularly during the past three years, but there are still increasing restrictions on women, limiting their role in the society,” she said. “It feels like women have no value and contribution in society, while traditionally Islam gave women an important role and responsibility.”
For Jamila Haqmal, a 24-year-old living in the capital, the new restrictions, on top of those already in place, leave women entirely dependent on male relatives — a situation impossible for many since decades of war have left Afghanistan with one the highest numbers of widows.
“Some families don’t have a male caretaker at all,” she said. “I am worried for women who don’t have a male caretaker in the family. They will have to rely on other men for support or face numerous problems in their daily life. There’s actually no other option.”
The new law has been compared to the draconian regulations the Taliban introduced when they ruled the country for the first time in the late 1990s. The rules were in place until they were ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.
After 20 years of war and foreign military presence, Afghanistan’s Western-backed government collapsed as the US withdrew from the country and the Taliban regained control in August 2021. Shortly afterwards, they began to introduce restrictions resembling those of their first stint in power.
“The nature of the system and their ideological policy remain the same. However, there are some differences in treatment. Even though the law has been ratified, they use a relatively mild approach in its implementation,” Naseer Ahmad Nawidy, a professor of political sciences at Salam University in Kabul, told Arab News.
The new law contains general and often vague provisions on a variety of topics, including men’s and women’s dress codes and appearance, women’s travel and voice, media, as well as rulings related to non-Muslims residing temporarily or permanently in the country.
It has several legal ambiguities, leaving space for multiple interpretations.
Nawidy said that its biggest shortcoming is that punishments for violating the law are left to the enforcer’s discretion.
“Previously, the restrictions were in the form of decrees. Now that it (has taken) the form of a law and has a specific enforcement body, things might get even more difficult for women,” Nawidy said.
“The results are already evident, as the number of families going to public parks has decreased significantly.”