Breaking the silence – How a conference declares war on sexist police violence

On October 18th A conference against sexualized police violence is taking place in Berlin Kreuzberg. The organizers are primarily politically active women from various organizations, such as ZORA or the Prisoners Voice Platform (TSP). We talked to them about their specific experiences, the conference program and the larger goals.

Interview: Osa Udushesheri

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Can you introduce yourself and say what led you to organize the conference against sexualized police violence?

First of all, thank you very much for the interview! We are primarily politically active women from different organizations such as ZORA and Prisoners Voice Platform (TSP - Tutsakların Sesi Platformu), but we are accompanied in the preparation by many different comrades and organizations that have already organized such conferences in the past, for example in Turkey, against rape in prison and have been successful in the fight against it. The conference is therefore a result of many comrades, a result of the experiences that women have had before us.

But above all, that's what made us plan this conference: At the Palestine demonstrations in Berlin, we see at almost every action how women's breasts are grabbed, how women's hijabs are torn off, and how police officers in particular exploit their power over women. Let us also think of the actions of the Rheinmetall disarm camp. At the major demonstration in 2025, activists were kept in a cauldron for 12 hours and the police took extremely brutal action against women. This year, too, during the blockades of the RME camp, many reported to us about grabbing the pants or the chest, sexist and derogatory comments and other forms of sexualized police violence. What was particularly noticeable are the naked searches that are carried out by police officers for no reason here in Germany, it almost seems as if this should become normal, in cases of blockade actions or similar.

Especially after Anna Liedtke's publications in December 2025 about the rape in Israeli custody, there were many more reports from the flotilla activists who reported sexual violence and torture by the IDF. Publications about physical and sexual torture also followed during the People's Caravan, which wanted to travel to Kobane at the beginning of the year to report on the events. The activist of the Federation of Class Struggle Organizations Paula Maier made a publication in August of this year in which she announced that she was arrested with many other activists during the youth delegation to Bakur and then raped in a solitary cell by a Turkish officer.

These are all cases that have increased in recent years and should be addressed. So we see how our own bodies are used as a weapon against ourselves. We are of course aware that wherever women resist, the state responds with repression. Although the topic is now current, we as a women's movement and left-wing movement have not managed to make it part of our anti-repression work or to consciously fight against it.
The conference therefore serves as a place where we come together as a movement, exchange ideas about international experiences of comrades, about the problems we currently have and, above all, how we can fight against them. It should be for all people who are interested in politics, are already active, those affected or simply those who want to learn something.

What is sexualized police violence? To what extent does sexual violence reflect police structures? Are there any differences to other forms of repression and police violence?

The last few years have clearly shown us that police violence in general against everyone who fights against war, genocide, exploitation and against this system has increased significantly. The state has primarily responded to a strong Palestine movement with brutal police violence and state persecution. These repressions that we experience in all movements and struggles aim to use fear and violence to dissuade individuals, but also entire collectives, from their political thoughts and activism. In Germany, sexualized police violence has often been reduced to a continuity of increasing police violence.  
We see the police as a state organ that is supposed to implement the interests of those in power in practice: combating resistance, criminalizing and disciplining the poor, women, migrants, LGBTI+ and workers. The police do not shy away from underhanded and inhumane methods: harassment, beatings, psychological pressure, and it is not uncommon for personal problems to be used against you.
The police use the social shame that is imposed on us women to make us feel humiliated. So you're basically directly attacking patriarchal and capitalist oppression.

But sexualized police violence doesn't just affect women. Migrant men in Germany in particular also experience naked searches or their pants being grabbed. Racist police violence plays a major role here. Or the countless reports from Zionist prisons that make it clear that brutal sexist police violence is used primarily against Palestinian men. Here, sexual violence serves to humiliate and dehumanize particularly strongly.
Sexualized state violence is a special attack against physical integrity and self-determination. When a police officer asks me to strip naked, when a police officer rips clothes off my body, when I am left alone in a cell in my underwear for hours in custody or when an internationalist delegation of officers threatens me with death or rape. These are all realities and experiences that we have had as women.

Give us an insight into the conference? How will it work and what will be discussed?

The aim of the conference is to evaluate international experiences, to create inspiration from the struggles that have been fought, but also to discuss an analysis of developments in Germany and which methods we would like to use to organize our fight against them.

The conference is divided into two parts: The first panel will discuss international experiences of sexualized violence by the state and will particularly highlight what forms of resistance have been developed against it. On this panel, Sosyalist Kadin, Prisoners Dialogue talks about the situation in Iran and a speaker talks about the situation in Palestine. There will also be speakers from Nekane Txapartegi, a Basque activist who made her rape in custody public and from there led a political fight against it, as well as speakers on perspective in the Philippines.

On the second panel we would like to discuss the current developments in Germany together and classify them politically: Anna Liedtke will speak for the women's organization ZORA - last December she published a publication on rape in Israeli prisons, a group of those affected from Nuremberg will talk about their experiences with chokeholds by the police, as well as Paula Maier from FKO, an internationalist who experienced rape in prison by Turkish officials at the beginning of the year after taking part in a delegation trip to Bakur. In addition, Ezwa will speak, a solidarity structure that looks after cases of repression of the Palestine movement in Germany and, among other things, organizes itself with lawyers to take action against it.
There will also be a lot of space for discussion in which those affected by sexual punishment have the opportunity to share their own experiences and develop political clout from them.

What do you want to achieve with the conference? What will we expect after that and what else will it take to combat sexualized police violence?

Over the last year, various organizations have taken the first steps. We want to collectivize the evaluations and findings from this and strengthen the alliances in the fight. We want to find answers to the questions of how an organized struggle can be created that specifically pushes back sexualized police violence.

Chokeholds and naked searches must not be allowed to creep unhindered into all of our protests, our resistance and our everyday lives. The direct ideological attack on women must be understood as such and a targeted fight must be waged as organizations and movements against police methods.  The spontaneous consciousness must be transformed into an organized consciousness and a common struggle, among the women concerned and the entire movement. We believe it is necessary to found an initiative that takes on the task of combating this broadly. We want to fight against it on the streets, but also take legal action against it. No case of sexualized police violence should remain unanswered!

Thanks for the conversation!

Photo:Red pixels

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