Prague, Jan 15 (CTK) – Czech organisations fighting for women’s rights do not seem interested in the recent German sexual assaults by immigrants very much or they downplay the importance of the incidents, daily Pravo writes Saturday.
German authorities said most of the men, who formed groups that surrounded, groped and mugged women in the crowd celebrating the New Year’s Eve in Cologne, were immigrants from the Middle East and Africa.
Katerina Hodicka, head of the Czech Nora gender information centre, said she would not comment on the incidents because she did not have information on them, the paper writes.
The Forum 50%, which strives for equal opportunities of men and women in politics, did not comment on the sexual attacks either and she told Pravo to address the Czech Women’s Lobby.
Czech Women’s Lobby vice president Eva Kafkova said violence against women was a problem in the Czech Republic as well. She indicated that the difference was that in Cologne the sexual abuse was committed openly in the street.
“The punishment of the violence in Cologne will be a clear signal that this violence is unacceptable in our country. This is a general problem of disrespect for women that is typical not just of people from the Middle East. The incidents have at least attracted attention to the issue,” Kavkova said.
Sociologist Jirina Siklova, from the administrative board of the Gender Studies organisation, said the Cologne violence may be politically abused as it was committed by foreigners.
During the first Spartakiad mass gymnastics event in Prague in 1955, there were a lot of youth teams and young boys formed a circle and groped girls, she recalled.
Siklova said Muslims would act according to their cultural upbringing. “We must either accept it or build a fence, which is nonsense,” she added.
The newcomers should adapt to the majority society and Europe should insist on its laws and traditions, she said.
Siklova said she believes that Czech and Middle East men do not have radically different views of women. “The position of women and men is different there, but even Arab women can be at universities and in professions,” she said.
The Amnesty International (AI) organisation says violence against women is a problem even without migrants. AI points out that several thousands of women are raped every year and only a fraction of them report the crime due to the atmosphere in society.
“Women are often afraid that others would think that they were to blame and the rape was actually their own fault,” said Gabriela Bartova, from AI Czech office.
There are no reliable data on unreported rapes in the Czech Republic, Pravo writes. In 2014, 669 cases of rape were reported to the police. From January to November 2015, the police registered 569 cases of rape.
kva/t/rtj
