On New Year's Eve, at least 80 women in the German city of Cologne were harassed, robbed and assaulted by a group of up to 1,000 men, who are said to have been of Arab or North African appearance, in what may have been coordinated attacks. Two women have reported being raped. Others have been left with injuries and scars. It must have been terrifying, and will have a permanent impact on some of the victims.
The incident has received widespread media attention. Yet some on social media and blogging sites have accused feminists of ignoring or downplaying the event for fear of inflaming racial tensions, amid wider allegations of an attempted “cover up”.
UK "feminists" deploring the aggressive, misogynistic, migrant mass sexual assault on young German women in Cologne pic.twitter.com/qtPkGjnx9U — A Libertarian Rebel (@A_Liberty_Rebel) January 5, 2016
Western feminists spend years bellyaching about 'rape culture' but when that culture actually turns up they're nowhere to be seen. #Cologne
— The Blue Baron (@Ryan__Blake) January 6, 2016
To begin with, that's not exactly an unfounded fear. Tensions are already high in Germany after the arrival of record numbers of refugees in 2015–more than a million, which is about five times as many as arrived the year before. While there were wonderful stories of Germans welcoming refugees into their cities and even their homes, there were darker stories too, including anti-immigration rallies that attracted tens of thousands of attendees, and violent attacks on refugees and their supporters.
The Cologne attacks have unsurprisingly been set upon enthusiastically by those who wish to turn emotions against the new arrivals and have portrayed the incident as the result of an influx of immigrants who engage in crime and have little respect for women. Feminists are necessarily concerned with the protection of minorities and marginalised groups. If some of them are finding it difficult to speak up about the event because of concerns it might be used to encourage aggression against refugees, I can't say I blame them. The fault lies not with the feminists but with those making them nervous to speak–the very same people, often, who are expressing outrage that they aren't.
That doesn't imply an acceptance of the crime by feminists, a desire to sweep it under the carpet or a lack of solidarity with the victims, as some internet commentators have alleged. Unlike them, feminists are generally aware that sexual assaults happen with or without immigration. At the time of writing, there has been no confirmation of the ethnic origins of those involved in the Cologne attacks, or of whether they are recent immigrants, or immigrants at all. It is those using the event to advance their own political goals who are showing a lack of respect for the victims.
But if feminists have been quiet about the attacks (and I'm not convinced they have), there'll be another reason, too. Those of my generation have been speaking about sexual violence and street harassment for years. Our predecessors campaigned against it for decades before that. The statistics, both for Europe and for the rest of the world, are endless and horrifying. Books have been written about it; protests organised over many years and many countries; campaigns launched; reports undertaken; NGOs established; and countless, countless articles written.
It is usually the task of feminists to make enough noise about incidents of sexual assault that they can no longer be ignored; the Cologne attack was big enough that it received a huge amount of attention across Europe and further afield. We can only hope now that the police are successful in bringing those responsible to the courtroom and preventing further attacks, and that the women involved are given enough support.
Other than that–having shouted, commented, written and taken to the streets in our millions–the exasperating fact is that whatever the commentators want us to say, we've already said–whether they've been listening or not.
