Birgit Kelle, a German journalist, wrote this article this morning, which describes how life has changed for women in Germany. The translation of the excerpts I will post here are my own.
„But nothing happened yet.“ I can't hear this sentence anymore, because I have been hearing it for months. Every time my friends and women in general tell or write me about their experiences with men, who, as we now say, are „not here as long yet.“
It's what they say, somewhat desperately, when I ask, „did you report it to the police?“ No, nothing had happened yet, she got away. It was just discomforting and frightening, and she would try to avoid getting into such a situation next time. What should reporting to the police do anyway?
The neighbour who energetically rang my doorbell and asked me where I had done my self-defense course last spring, she needed one too. She had come from our park into our village in a swivet.
The woman who wanted to gather chestnuts with her son. „But you can't go there anymore.“ She had told me this in the summer, and blamed it on her light summer dress. On herself. Now it was fall, and nothing had changed.
My friend from Munich who doesn't use the subway anymore, because of lingering vociferous groups of men at the stations. My friend from Frankfurt, whose teenage daughters got harrassed in broad daylight on their way to school.
I myself who doesn't wear high-heels anymore, so I am able to run away faster.
The father who almost lost his countenance on the sports field, because his daughter, who was playing football, kept being harrassed by bystanders with obscene remarks.
Nothing has happened yet to any of us, we got away. Into the next subway, the taxi, or arrived at home. We women and girls don't appear in any police statistic, because nothing happened yet. What should we report? That we were scared? That we felt uncomfortable? That our daughters had some bad experiences?
(...)
After the murder of a 19-year-old girl by a refugee, the head of the police union warned about suspecting all refugees. And he is right. But what should that tell me? Don't abuse your fears for political purposes, to cover up your hostility towards foreigners?
(…)
The rising number of „tragic isolated cases“ are insufficiant to appreciate the increasing danger for women in Germany. We wanted to live on as we had been, not restrict ourselves in our way of life. To be role models, brave and self-confident. Open and tolerant. In reality our life has changed drastically, we just don't admit it. Our submission has long started.
And so we women, mothers but also fathers, keep working for the clean statistics, because we don't wait until something happens to us. Or to our children. If we can afford it, we now use the taxi. We drive our children to places they used to get to by bike.
We recommend different clothes. Wasn't there this school director who disadvised girls from wearing short skirts? Our children are not allowed to go to the lake or to the swimming pool anymore. Our overeager obedience is rewarded with clean statistics.
Well done. Now just take women in bikini off the placards to protect their honour. Soon we will have reached our goal, hurray!
One year after New Year's Eve in Cologne our women's policy is a pile of shards that nobody wants to clean up. Things we always took for granted have now come into question. But the outcry doesn't happen.
(...)
Die Unterwerfung hat doch längst begonnen
