By Khola Maryam Hübsch
Our outrage over the sexist Muslim male reveals a need to feel superior. It expresses a brand of cultural chauvinism that co-opts feminism as a means of diverting attention from its own sexist and racist shortcomings.
All of sudden – overnight in fact – we live in a country where people avow a constant concern regarding the safety and dignity of women. And not because an EU study has concluded that one in three women in Germany experiences sexual or physical violence at some point in her life. Nor is it about the often sexist and misogynist role model disseminated by mass and pop culture in thousands of music videos, advertising posters, magazine covers and Hollywood films. We’ve long since grown accustomed to that.
Instead, the focus is on how German women are being threatened by Muslim men. So instead of holding an urgent discussion on sexual violence against women, we are talking instead about the Muslim male. And this despite the fact that no evidence has yet been forthcoming of an increase in sexual harassment by migrants or refugees. The German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) for example released a report in October 2015 showing that refugees are no more delinquent than the average citizen. And the proportion of offences of a sexual nature is “under one percent”.