Sex Attacks in Cologne and other European Cities Part IX

[vladimirsoftless]

Petition

Women in the UK must be free to work, travel and live free of sexual violence

Recently, women across the EU were subjected to mass sexual assaults of a type previously unknown in Europe. We demand that Government brings forward proposals for extra measures to uphold UK women's rights, safety & freedom, and to expand police understanding-recognition-response to such behaviour.

Please take a look and and sign:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/119385

Previous threads

Thread1

Thread 2

Thread 3

Thread 4

Thread 5

Thread 6

Thread 7

Thread 8

PS great threads - thanks for posting and petition - have signed and shared. Anna great letter to MP - will follow suit.

That article is a piece of aplogistic crap widow. I note there is no data to back up their completely made up statistics. There was no offense committed by migrant men in Cologne that hasn’t also been committed by white European men on countless occasions. Utter bullshit.

The woman proberbly wer'nt subjected to probing questions, because it wasn't a one on one rape, but a thousand strong men in groups targeting them, some with their partners, who were so overwhelmed too by the shear numbers.

What happened, is also a well known game in some countries where some of the migrants have come from.

Widow thank you for the article. The difficulty with the arguments contained therein is that they are transparently circular. A shorthand way of summarising the article's content is "It happens everywhere". That's it. No explanations for anything, no solutions, no forward- or - lateral thinking, no debate, and nothing that anyone can add anything to. The racial, classist and gendered intersections of sexual violence are glossed over with a glib, "White men have constructed a specific socio- historical nexus of rape in order to underpin their racist ideology". This is a one-sided and singular viewpoint. It advocates for a particular position without acknowledging any of the nuanced theorising about these issues available to date.

Widow to add to my last point, arguments of the 'it happens everywhere' type tacitly disempower the reader by their closed nature. These arguments present the phenomenon as universal, and thus, almost-natural, and almost-inevitable. They overwhelm the reader into compliance by the sheer magnitude of the task facing them, so that people have little option other than to put down their tools and accept whatever is in front of them.

I think you're missing the point. Women have been long ridiculed, ignored and victimblamed if they reported sexual assaults from white men, by the very same people who are up in arms about the Cologne attacks. Nobody's saying that the Cologne attacks weren't horrible, just that some people are very hypocritical about it.

Excellent post Sunnychild.

It is somewhat ironic that those of us who have travelled widely (and not just to Club Med) or with parents from a different country or with parents who were themselves refugees are the ones who can see the looming problems from this unfettered migration.

I have a Sikh friend who is disgusted by the favouritism displayed to others of a similar geographical area but different religion. His family were hounded out of an area where people of different faiths and cultures had previously co-existed happily. As soon as the area became predominantly Muslim the intimidation began and the council/police didn't care. The family decided to move when his younger sister began getting a lot of unwanted attention and at one point had to stop going to school after an attempted sexual assault. This was late 90s so not that recent.

just that some people are very hypocritical about it

Thank you, for enlightening me about the fact some people are hypocrites.
I've gone Through life up until now, never knowing that.

So we have some hypocrites, what now?
Shall we just wash our hands of it all then? Shrug our shoulders and forget all about what's happening across Europe.

Widow You make it sound like there was no resistance to the victim blaming, ridiculing and ignoring of sexual violence in Europe prior to Cologne! What a strange perception. Do you live here? We have made enormous progress on these issues. It's not perfect and the process still has a long way to go, but, compared to other cultures, it is undeniable that secondary victimisation of the rape victim is undergoing significant changes in a favourable direction. I can't even begin to list the comparisons between what has been achieved here and the non- achievements surrounding rape in other cultures. For example, there has been a fall in percentage of the general public who endorse rape myths when compared across specific time points. It's still not zero, and the percentage is still way too high, but just compare this to cultures where victims are killed for having been raped! Can you even imagine it? I can't even conceptualise it. Having been exposed to Western practices, I can't gather my thoughts about the way that rape victims are treated in other cultures. Utterly shocking, unfathomable and disgraceful.

fourmummy I've grown up in Germany, but left 11 years ago to live in the UK, but still visit regularly, also follow German media, etc.

Victim blaming is still quite a big issue there, the #aufschrei hashtag and German version of everyday sexism was met with plenty of ridicule, columnists who now funnily enough are very upset about (foreign) abuse wrote columns how women protesting against sexism or sleaziness should "button up their blouses". It's still a deeply conservative society (much more than the UK imho).

It's be great if rape victims were treated in this (German or UK) society as well as you imagine they are. Often they aren't. Especially if the rapist is white. Is it getting better? Probably. Are we in a position where rape victims largely get the support they need and perps are persecuted? Far from it. Why pretend otherwise?

Widow I agree with you that things are far from perfect and still have a long way to go, but there's a great deal of research to show that attitudes toward rape victims improve with education and training, which is why law makers, police officers, medical professionals, and other similar groups undergo training in some European countries. Researchers have measured these attitudes over time, both pre/post training/educational intervention, and longitudinally. It is well known that rape victims are met with more sensitive responses, greater awareness and more positive actions now than both historically and cross culturally (e.g., in Turkey, to use one hastily-googled example). Knowledge exchange ensures that interventions devised here are transported to other European countries and vice versa. What you are seeing in Germany is similar to here - outdated, resistant and stubborn beliefs surrounding rape. However, you'll also encounter specialised medical staff and police officers, 'rape suites' and special rooms within police stations, trained administrative staff, improved legal framework, etc.. Can you imagine coming face-to- face with police officers or judges who believe that you should be killed because you were raped?

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/28/up-to-70000-migrants-may-soon-be-stranded-in-greece
Athens migration minister sounds alarm and says it is likely the Greek army will be deployed to tackle crisis

Sunny Thanks. The Greeks celebrate their independence on 25th March 1821 after 400 years subjugation since 1453. In many EU States the National History is taught as a compulsory subject. And in addition may learn European History and World Historyt as separate subjects. The Greek islands of Chios, Icaria, Mytilene, and Samos where the refugees / migrants land are partially demilitarized according to the Treaty of Lausanne # 13 . The Treaty forbids all naval fortifications and bases and stipulates that military forces on the islands "be limited to the normal contingent called up for military service. NATO boats are there however since last Fridfay en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demilitarized_zone

widow have skimmed read that article. The first thing that sprung to mind was it didn't mention one of the things I find most shocking - the attempted cover up. If this had been groups of white men I am sure it would have been instant front page news ...to be my knowledge nothing on the scale has happened like that in the EU before ...however this kind of attack has (and still does) happen in Egypt...
And we also have evidence in the UK of police/social workers not tackling the sexual exploitation of young girls through fear of being called racist...
Yes white men commit gang rape ...in private, secretively -this was in public ...with an audience...it shows no fear of the consequences of their actions (which is terrifying really).

Victim blaming - we can check that off - the Mayor telling women to keep strangers at arms length, another German politician saying maybe women shouldn't go out at night...and some muslim group did say it was due to alcohol being available and the women wearing perfume....

I don't think I need really to say any more ...that piece is just as biased as something you would expect to see on the pages of EDL etc ...though obviously with an opposing slant ...

and still in the West do-gooders prefer to privilege Muslims over Christians. They are literally enabling their own downfall. The hordes of army age men forcing their way into Europe is an invasion - no more no less. It's tragic

The writing is on the wall. I am really worried for the future and still debate is shut down. How obvious does it have to be before people take action?

As Izlet says up thread, it is people who have travelled widely or are from other ethnic groups who seem to often have the better insight into the problems we are about to face. Having travelled widely and being married to a man from a much persecuted ethnic minority, I do think I have a less naive and idealistic view of uncontrolled migration from MENA men. Personally, I think its a fucking disaster waiting to happen.

I never visted a MENA place. In my neighbourhood we have imigration from Africa China Russia and South America very mixed. Paris seems to have had similar problems. A feminist activist from Algeria who lived in Paris Samira Bellil has described the sexual violence she experienced in her book Dans l'enfer des tournantes. Worth looking at the article. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samira_Bellil She helped found a group of activists ni putes ni sumises

Some interesting posts and horrific experiences.

The trouble is the working class arent going to win whether voting in or out of the EU.

Im choosing to vote in because if we vote out the working class will have even more rights eroded.

This is a going to be a tough choice for working class women because we have to face a choice between voting for either our class or our gender.

If we vote out i foresee even more poverty and less rights for the working classes.

Helena I m happy you raised points but I dont know the answers. The gender pay gap is unfortunately there all the time despite the Directive 2006/54/EC and though ten 10 years passed it is still so. That means the difference in average gross hourly wage between men and women across the economy. This source ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/document/index_en.htm#pay from EU shows factors that contribute to the gender pay gap. Look at the UK file and the 2013 report. Besides, cuts in UK will go deeper and deeper and never gone the other way. Disabled suffer first and have a huge struggle. Employees have to go to the tribunal usually to uphold their rights . This holds for anti-discrimnation Laws such as the Equality Act 2010 which is not automatically enforceable and the worker must do so via courts and there must be an appeal within 3 months! Nothing is automatic. Finding the money to go to a tribunal is a cost for workers.

sunny some really interesting posts thank you!

and some muslim group did say it was due to alcohol being available and the women wearing perfume....

Yes ^ I heard and saw this written at the time.

In that article from Widow it also mentions this - about three times, "so called liberal values, wearing skimpy clothing, drinking" I wondered about the Jounro, is she Muslim? its so weird?

The trouble is the working class arent going to win whether voting in or out of the EU

I couldn't disagree more .

Which working class do you feel allegiance too? Because the working class of Europe has come to the UK in large numbers. How does that help the indigenous population?

Even down to small things like charity shops, bargain sales, the reduced food section in the supermarket, I compete and stand next to fellow scrimpers from the EU. Do I begrudge them the reduced, cheaper items? NO NO NO!!!!

But I do begrudge a policy which means allowing millions of very poor people to come here, puts everything under pressure for the poor already here.

Housing, schools, hospitals, aid, those at the bottom in UK are pushed down even further as there are fewer resources to go round.
And I have tradesmen in my family without a doubt they have been under cut and suffered due to Polish builders being able to live much more cheaply and do trades work. Its passed off as " the brits are too lazy" its quite offensive, the brits just need paying thats all.

Go and speak to the big issue sellers in London, I have spoken to a few and they are beside themselves.

If we vote out i foresee even more poverty and less rights for the working classes

Ages ago on MN we were not allowed to even breathe on these subjects. A woman came on from a small charity helping families in need. She was desperate trying to explain how they had capacity to help x amount of families but with the newly arrived extremely poor families from EU they were swamped and couldn't cope with the sheer need.

AMouse, what is going on with the Big Issue sellers?