Patriarchal violence | Berlin: “Justice for Lisa, justice for all”

"When women and girls are murdered, our collective soul trembles." Remembering Lisa T. in Lichtenberg Photo: Kim Lee Chu The picture of the missing 13-year-old Lisa T. from Berlin was in the media throughout Germany last week. Her body was found by investigators on Sunday in an empty house in Altglietzen, near the Polish border. The suspect is a 22-year-old man who has already been investigated for possessing and purchasing depictions of sexual violence against children. As the “Tagesspiegel” reported on Wednesday, citing security circles, the man is said to have died by now. He was found seriously injured in the said house in Altglietzen.

On Tuesday evening, a framed picture of Lisa T. lay next to roses, grave candles and incense sticks at a memorial demonstration. Almost 400 people gathered under the motto “Justice for Lisa, Justice for All” and walked through Berlin-Lichtenberg. Alongside the sadness, collective anger made its way into the cold in the form of loud slogans.

Our short video about the demo can be viewed here.

The initiators of the event, the left-wing women's group Zora, emphasized that Lisa was not an isolated case, but the "result of a patriarchal system that costs girls and women their lives every day." They refer to the case of 38-year-old Enrico K., who confessed in 2026 to having abused 26 children and was sentenced by the Halle regional court to a sentence of only two years probation.

According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Independent Federal Commissioner against Sexual Abuse of Children and Adolescents (UBSKM), 17,126 cases of child sexual abuse were recorded by the police in Germany in 2025. In addition, there were 41,677 registered crimes in connection with depictions of sexual violence against children. As of May 1, 2026, almost 2,000 children under the age of 14 were missing nationwide.

Around 96.5 percent of cases are solved, but not all. In its speech, the socialist youth organization Young Struggle asks about other missing migrant girls: "Where is 14-year-old Makira, where is 13-year-old Leyla, where is 13-year-old Fathi Abdi Adam, where is the 17-year-old girl from Hagen?"

»As Asian women, we are never damned accidental victims.«

Femicide and patriarchal violence are mentioned again and again at the rally. Because femicides and (sexualized) violence against children cannot be understood independently of social power relations. They are associated with a patriarchal order in which male claims to dominance over the bodies and lives of women and girls are socially anchored. Sexualized violence is not just an expression of individual drives, but also a means of exercising power and control.

Girls in particular are particularly vulnerable due to the intertwining of patriarchal gender relations and age-related dependencies. The demonstrators therefore criticize a society in which such violence is repeatedly treated as an individual crime, while the structural conditions that enable it remain in place. When asked about state responsibility, answers come in the form of slogans: “This state doesn’t protect me, my sisters protect me!”

At the final rally, parts of the Vietnamese community, including Lisa, had their say. The Nobody is Forgotten initiative sharply criticizes the media label as a “random victim”. “As Asian women, we are never damn victims of chance,” the speaker calls out to the crowd. As children, girls who read Asian learn what it means to be exoticized and sexualized. Her body is made into an object not only through patriarchal but also through racist attributions. “When women and girls are murdered, our collective soul trembles,” she says at the end of her speech.

On this evening, individual grief turns into a collective fighting spirit for a society in which girls don't have to learn to be afraid before they can learn to be independent.

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