For the women of North Africa, the sexual assaults in Cologne are nothing new [View all]

[LittleBlue]

LONDON – Germany is reeling from the news, hidden for several days because of its political sensitivity, that as many as 90 women were sexually assaulted by a crowd of young men of Middle Eastern appearance outside Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve. This is, as the local police chief put it, a “whole new dimension of crime” for Germans to confront. No woman in North Africa, however, would be the least bit shocked...

In North Africa, it doesn’t require a war for sexual abuse to become routine. Some of the anecdotal stories told by victims of the Cologne attacks are strongly reminiscent of what women in Cairo have suffered over the past few years.

During the 2013 protests that preceded a coup against former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, for example, 101 sexual assaults (including at least three of rape) were reported among the crowds. These, by the way, were the supposedly secular crowds, not the Muslim Brotherhood protests that followed Morsi’s removal. Here’s what would happen, according to a detailed study by the Worldwide Movement for Human Rights, a nonprofit umbrella for 178 organizations:

According to survivors and witnesses, these attacks tend to form a clear pattern. Attacks are perpetrated by groups of men who single out one or two women and separate them from the crowd by forming a circle around them. The men are mainly in their 20s and 30s. The survivors are groped by the mob and dragged violently to different locations. Sometimes their clothes are removed. Many survivors report members of the group saying, “Do not be afraid, I’m protecting you,” while they are being attacked. Attacks last from a few minutes to more than an hour. Several cases of rape have been reported and some survivors have required urgent medical treatment...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/01/10/commentary/world-commentary/germany-catches-the-north-african-disease/#.VpL5MVnha-e