Asma LAMRABET

About Cologne attacks and feminism….

Dear Ms. Lamrabet,

Thank you so much for your kind willingness to answer my questions. Here they are:

  1.  In which terms did Moroccan newspapers report about the sexual assaults on New Year's Eve in Cologne?

  2.  About 800 assaults were reported to the police in Cologne, almost 50 % were sex attacks on German women. Many perpetrators were described as Arabic or Northern African. Until now, no evidence was found that the attacks were somehow orchestrated, but similar scenes - of less gravity - happened in other German cities. What we know is: what happened in Cologne was in many cases a mix of robbery and sexual harassment or rape. How would you explain this combination?

  3.  Alice Schwarzer, whom you certainly know as a leading feminist of the Seventies in Europe, said that sexual violence against women has always been a way for men to show and exert power. She talked about an ideological war going on in Europe between political Islamism and Western values and asked if the rapes perpetrated in Cologne could not be considered as a weapon and an instrument of provocation in this conflict. "By raping women, soldiers achieve two goals: they break the women, and they humiliate their men." What do you think of that interpretation?

  4.  The assaults in Cologne triggered a public debate about feminism an racism which shows that there is a strong feeling against refugees in German and generally speaking in Europe. Racist slogans are frequent, and many feminists begin to think that Western societies showed too much tolerance towards Islamic immigrants. Alice Schwarzer stated that "what happened in Cologne is partly consequence of misguided tolerance". Explaining her idea of racism, Ms Schwarzer said that  "racism is to think that strangers are always right and to abandon to their destiny Islamic women who live in Germany". What is your opinion?

  5.  From your point of view, how should Western societies react to what happened in Cologne? Some people think that Western governments should make a bigger effort to explain Western values like gender equality and non-violence to Islamic refugees and immigrants, for instance by obliging asylum seekers to take classes in social studies and fundaments of Western civilisation. Do you think this could make a difference for real integration?

  6.  Do you think, like Ms Schwarzer, that Islamic women who live in Europe should be helped in a proactive way by Western society to emancipate themselves from their men?

Asma Lamrabet :

I am sorry but I will  give my opinion in one answer:

First as a Muslim feminist woman who is fighting for the rights of women for many times a go, I support women victims of these shameful attacks and I think what happened in Cologne  is unacceptable from every point of view.

But I want to say that my support goes to all a the women victims of violence whatever who are the authors of this kind of crime ! My feminism is not selective…. The universal decolonial feminism in which I am enrolled defends all women from the violence they suffer without giving any importance to the cultural, race or social class of the aggressors.

I am sad to see how this kind of violent incidents can be exploited at this point by the extreme right and racist Western movements that are known for their animosity against women's rights but finding a golden opportunity to stigmatizes the migrants in xenophobic political purposes.

The violence machist  has no laws or culture or ethnicity… It is universal…the rape culture is universal and what happened in Cologne happens every day in every country of the world.

It is really outrageous to see that some western feminists like Alice Schawazer claiming this kind of ideas... The rape is not cultural !!! Sexist violence does not exist in Western country’s  ??? in Germany? in France?? To do this kind of amalgam and accuse the refugees is to justify the ideology of racism and xenophobia…

As a feminist I humbly think that these events provide an opportunity for all feminists around the word to remind people that what should be defended are the rights of women and that the debate on immigration is another debate. I refuse the abject sexism that women suffered but I deeply disapprove the racist recovery of such violence by the xenophobic movements.

About giving  citizenship lessons to migrants on "Western values" , I am just horrified by such ideology of ethnocentric arrogance and supremacy !! I am just stunned by the fact that we are still on this kind of colonialist mentality !!  The universal humanistic values are not only Western !! And about helping Muslim women to emancipate from Muslim men I find this extremely humiliating and not helping Muslims women at all ..This is just a remake of  the imperialist hegemonic ideology of the old relation between coloniser and colonised !! As Muslim women we don’t need help we can solve our problems by ourselves…

Asma Lamrabet