The politician of the Left Party plays down the cultural and religious background of violence against women in Berlin and has done so for many years. Yet she knows exactly how big the problems actually are, writes Gunnar Schupelius in his commentary:
Social Senator Elke Breitenbach (Left Party) has put the murder of 34-year-old Maryam H. from Afghanistan into perspective. She did not want to speak of a murder out of a violated sense of honour, but only of male violence in general.
It was “about patriarchal structures”, she wrote in a press release on Monday, denying the true motive of the perpetrators. Because Maryam H. was killed by her brothers Seyed (22) and Sayed H. (25) because she had taken off her headscarf and chosen a western way of life. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is convinced of this.
More than “patriarchal structures” were the reason for the crime, it was a fundamentalist Muslim ideology that led to the murder. The social senator knows this, but she obviously does not want to admit that such archaic violence is taking over in Berlin.
This is not the first time that Ms Breitenbach has ignored reality. When catastrophic conditions arose at the asylum reception centre in Reinickendorf in July, she turned a blind eye.
TV channel RBB had used undercover cameras to show evidence of how criminal gangs smuggle in people from Moldova who are not even entitled to asylum. Employees of the “State Office for Refugees” complained internally in an urgent reminder about the intolerable conditions in and outside their offices. “I would like to know where they get this certainty from,” Ms Breitenbach only said.
The violence of men against women, which has become a major problem since 2015, is also not mentioned by the senator. Yet she should be well informed about this too.
As early as April 2016, the Berlin police set up the “hug scammer” investigation group after group violence occurred at the “Carnival of Cultures”: young men had surrounded girls and women, harassed them and blocked all escape routes.
The daily newspaper “taz” spoke of a phenomenon known from Arab countries where it is called “taharrush gamea”, ” joint sexual harassment”. This “perfidious game” has “now apparently come to Berlin”.
On July 30, there was another attack of this kind in Berlin: a 20-year-old woman was surrounded by 15 young men at Warschauer Bridge in the evening and badly harassed. She was only able to free herself when passers-by rushed to help.
A form of violence against women is thus spreading that does not simply spring from “patriarchal structures”, as Ms Breitenbach claims, but has a cultural and religious background that can be clearly described.
As the senator responsible for asylum seekers, Ms Breitenbach is familiar with the background. Her party ( The Left) calls for unrestricted immigration. The problems that go hand in hand with this are concealed in cold silence. This is a slap in the face of the women who are exposed to this violence.