Lit 8 - Vieten, Cologne

Question 1

What happened on New Year’s Eve 2015/2016 in Germany that sparked public debate? Vieten

Answer 1

A series of sexual assaults against non-migrant women occurred near the main train stations in Cologne and Hamburg, but also in Stuttgart. These events triggered far-right populist debates on the “integration and gender equality skills” of new immigrants and North African male refugees

Question 2

What topics are discussed in the chapter, “The New Year’s 2015/2016 Public Sexual Violence Debate in Germany: Media Discourse, Gendered Anti-Muslim Racism and Criminal Law?” Vieten

Answer 2

The chapter discusses media coverage of the New Year’s Eve 2015/2016 sexual attacks, political, legal and societal responses to it in Germany between January and July 2016, Islamophobia, Anti-Muslim racism and gender, and the relationship between gender and Islamophobia. It also explores the ways the New Year’s Eve attacks have to be read against gendered culturalism and racism in Europe

Question 3

How does the author define ‘racialising’ in the context of the Cologne incident?

Answer 3

: The author prefers using ‘racialising’ to emphasise that others are discursively racialised and that racialising is not limited to post-slavery and post-colonial ‘race’ discourses

Question 4

: What is Taharrush? Vieten

Answer 4

Taharrush is an Arabic word that means ‘harassment’ and is associated with mass sexual assaults on women

Question 5

What arguments were used by the German Association of Female Lawyers (DJB) in their statement to the federal state parliament of North Rhine Westphalia regarding the New Year’s Eve 2015/2016 attacks? Vieten

Answer 5

The (FEMALE ADVOCATE AGENCY) argued that the attacks were unexpected, and therefore, according to existing German Criminal Law, it was unlikely that a significant percentage of the reported cases could be penalized. This is because the law at the time required victims to show that they resisted their attackers. It might have been difficult for the victims to resist given the nature of the attacks, which involved groups of men surrounding and assaulting women

Question 6

What legislative changes were made in response to the New Year’s Eve attacks? Vieten

Answer 6

Criminal Law was changed on 10.11.2016. Apart from 177 STGB, the law includes further new paragraphs, 184 j and 184 i STGB, addressing explicitly sexual attacks of groups and that relate to group assemblages.

Question 7

What were the consequences of the New Year’s Eve 2015/2016 public sexual violence occurrence in Germany?

Answer 7

The consequences of the New Year’s Eve 2015/2016 public sexual violence occurrence in Germany were multiple and complex:
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media coverage and material from social media tools racialised Muslim and Arab men
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The controversy about the new character of public sexual attacks also pushed wider debates about the sexual autonomy of women.
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This led to the actual reform of sexist Criminal Law (Paragraph 177 STGB) that was demanded by feminist groups for years.
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However, the dominant profile of the perpetrators as presented in media and public discourse is that of a cultural Other and that of the victim as belonging to the native and ethnic German population