Sexist police violence | Sexist police violence: Conference against silence

Sexist police violence will be the topic of an international conference in Berlin in October 2026. Photo: dpa/ZUMA Press Wire | Nikos Kanistras A policewoman touched her breast without being asked and then claimed that this was common practice, says an activist. Another reports on nude searches at the Day X protests in Leipzig. A third tells of chokeholds during anti-AfD protests in Nuremberg. According to those affected, several defamation charges were filed following their publications about the incidents. Shortly afterwards there were also house searches.

These are just three reports that you can read on the website for the “110 Reasons to Break the Silence” conference. It will take place on October 18th in the rooms of the bUm in Berlin-Kreuzberg. At the conference, other people affected should report on sexist police violence. “We want to come together to discuss our experiences and the fight against this violence,” the organizers wrote on social media.

According to the organizers, the idea came about during a demonstration on International Women's Struggle Day on March 8, 2025 in Berlin. The demonstration, organized by the Alliance of Internationalist Feminists, focused on the situation of women in Palestine. According to the organizers, the police took violent action against the meeting. Videos on social media show officers beating women or spraying pepper spray in faces. A video shows officers dragging women across the floor in such a way that their private parts are exposed.

The brutal police violence sparked a discussion among the organizers that went beyond March 8, 2025. “It wasn’t the first time that the police resorted to sexual violence,” one of them explains in an interview with “nd”. The view of one's own experiences has changed; More and more comrades have started to talk about their experiences. This attitude gave rise to the idea of ​​organizing a conference. The organizers see dealing with these experiences as a political process: those affected should not be left with shame and the feeling that they are responsible for themselves. The responsibility lies with those who commit violence.

According to their own statements, the organizers observed repeated attacks, especially during demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine: women's breasts were grabbed and their headscarves were forcibly removed. Nude searches during blockades and similar protests are sometimes carried out for no understandable reason. Whether individual measures were legal cannot be assessed from the available reports alone. But the organizers ask whether such searches also serve to intimidate and humiliate.

It's not just women who are affected. Migrant men are also exposed to naked searches and attacks - sexualized and racist violence overlap here. The organizers also point to reports of sexual violence against Palestinian men in Israeli custody.

Further reports come from abroad. In December 2025, the “Flotilla” activist Anna Liedtke made public the sexual violence she suffered at the hands of Israeli security authorities. A video report from her can be seen on the conference website. Afterwards, other “Flotilla” activists are said to have come forward.

Reports of physical and sexual violence were also published in connection with the “People’s Caravan,” which planned to travel to Kobâne in Kurdistan at the beginning of 2026. Paula Maier from the Federation of Class Struggle Organizations (FKO) made public in August 2026 that she had been arrested during a delegation trip to Bakur at the beginning of 2026 and raped in a solitary cell by a Turkish official.

For the organizers, these are not isolated cases, but rather a practice of violence that is linked to social power relations. They see the police as an institution that enforces power relations and disciplines resistance, and place the experiences in a context of patriarchy, racism and capitalism. Sexual assaults caused shame, humiliation and powerlessness and directly attacked physical self-determination. State repression is therefore not only aimed at individuals, but is intended to unsettle entire movements and deter them from further engagement. The organs of repression would specifically exploit social taboos and feelings of shame.

The conference is intended to bring together experiences from different countries. The organizers are politically active women from different backgrounds, including Zora (a women's organization) and the Prisoners Voice Platform (Tutsakların Sesi Platformu, TSP). They are supported by organizations and activists who have already organized conferences against sexual violence in prison.

Two panels are planned. The first is dedicated to international experiences and resistance to them. Contributions are planned, among others, from Prisoners Dialogue on the situation in Iran and from a woman on the situation in Palestine. The Basque activist Nekane Txapartegi, who made her rape in prison public and developed a political fight against sexual violence, is also scheduled to speak. Further articles will address state violence in the Philippines.

The second panel focuses on Germany. Anna Liedtke is supposed to speak for the women's organization Zora, a group of those affected from Nuremberg is supposed to report on strangleholds during police operations, and Paula Maier is supposed to talk about her experiences in Bakur. Also announced is 3ezwa, a solidarity group that accompanies cases of repression against the Palestinian solidarity movement. There should also be space for discussion and the exchange of personal experiences.

It shouldn't just stop at documentation. In recent years, initiatives have emerged that have made cases public and evaluated, but there is a lack of broader anchoring of the topic in anti-repression work. “No case of sexualized police violence should go unanswered,” is the organizers’ demand. They want to build an initiative that supports those affected, collects experiences and takes action against attacks both on the street and legally.

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