Feminists face backlash for defending female NYU scholar accused of sexual harassment

Avital Ronell, an American philoshpher and a professor of German and comparative literature at New York University, has been accused of sexual harassment by a student.

Known only as 'M', the 30 years old male Ph.D. student filed a complaint last September with  the university against the 66-year old scholar.

About 50 prominent intellectuals including some leading feminist theoreticians have invited strong backlash after they came to the professor's defence calling the allegations  "witch hunt".

According to Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, cries of character witnesses of Ronell about "witch hunt, the call to avoid a kangroo court and emphasis on the achievements of the person said to be the "real victim" are similar to the automatic reactions sometimes heard to the accusations against men who are accused of sexual harassment".

Ronell's colleagues sent a letter  signed by about 50 scholars among them prominent feminists  to the university  defending her against the accusations.

According to a report, the letter was made public by Brian Leiter, a professor of Philosophy and law at the university of Chicago Law School in a blogpost titled 'Blaming the victim is apparently OK when the accused in a Title IX proceeding is feminist literary theorist".

Ronell’s colleagues also warned the administration that if she were to be terminated or relieved of her duties “the injustice would be widely recognized and opposed.”

Critics have called this attempt by the scholars hypocritical for going against the "party line" in which accusers should always be believed.