Sexualized Violence and Racialized Others: Syrian Refugee Activism and Constructions of Difference Immediately after Cologne

Abstract:In this article I analyze the work of refugee activist group Syrer gegen Sexismus (Syrians against Sexism), whose members were active in early 2016 immediately following the so-called Cologne attacks. In so doing I demonstrate the kinds of opportunities refugees—particularly refugee men coded as Muslim—had to fight sexualized violence against women, given the restrictive and racialized public discourse around nation, race, gender, and difference in Germany at the time. Based on my reading of the group’s activist engagements, both online and in public, I argue that refugee men in particular faced limitations as they sought to address and fight sexualized violence against women in the German context. In addition, by focusing on refugee activist responses to Cologne, I show how racialized anti-refugee discourse creates limitations for activism aimed at ending sexualized violence.