# Mass sexual assault

Mass sexual assault is the collective sexual assault of women, men and sometimes children, in public by groups. Typically acting under the protective cover of large gatherings, victims have reported being groped, stripped, beaten, bitten, penetrated and raped.

## Egypt

In Egypt, several mass sexual assaults have received wide international coverage. In Arabic, the term "mass sexual assaults" translates as تحرش جماعي (taḥarrush jamāʿī), often incorrectly transliterated in the media as "taharrush gamea" following a German police report into the 2015/2016 New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany.$^{:15}$

## Germany

During New Year's Eve celebrations 2015/2016, incidents of mass sexual assault and numerous thefts occurred in Germany, mainly in Cologne city center. Over 1,200 women were reportedly sexually assaulted, in large part by men of North African origin.

## India

On 14 March 2015, a 71-year-old nun was gang raped in Ranaghat, in the state of West Bengal, by intruders at the Convent of Jesus and Mary. The six intruders were recorded on CCTV during their crime of ransacking the chapel, destroying religious items, looting cash and the gang rape. The six men were later arrested and charged with the crime by 1 April 2015, and identified to be Bangladeshi Muslims.
During the 2002 riots in Gujarat, targeted violence against women and children documented by civil society groups reported "mass rapes, live burials and burnings, acid attacks, impaling, and other brutal forms of torture that was deeply gendered, and linked violence against women with violence on their children – both born and unborn". Survivors reported "that sexual violence consisted of forced nudity, mass rapes, gang-rapes, mutilation, insertion of objects into bodies, cutting of breasts, slitting the stomach and reproductive organs, and carving of Hindu religious symbols on women's body parts. The Concerned Citizens' Tribunal, characterised the use of rape "as an instrument for the subjugation and humiliation of a community".
In July 2012, a teenage girl was sexually assaulted for up to 45 minutes by a large group of Bangladeshi Muslim men outside a bar in Guwahati, Assam. No one intervened until the police arrived.
In January 2018 an 8-year-old girl, Asifa Bano, was gang raped by six men and a juvenile in the Rasana village, in the Kathua district of Jammu. The forensic evidence revealed that Bano had been raped multiple times by different men, and that she had been strangled to death, as well as being hit in the head with a heavy stone. The main culprit was Sanji Ram, a retired revenue official.
In July 2023 a video emerged of two Kuki women in the Manipur being forced to strip down naked and paraded through the streets by a large mob of men. The women were also sexually assaulted and slapped by the mob. The incident is said to have taken place in May of the same year however police only took action once the video went viral.

## Italy

On 2 June 2022, at least 6 underaged girls were molested on a local train between Peschiera del Garda and Milan by young men of North African origin who had attended an illegal rave party hours prior. Authorities later identified about 30 suspects.
During the 2022 New Year's celebration in the central Duomo square in Milan, at least 9 women were allegedly molested in separate mass sexual assault incidents. A 19-year-old woman was reportedly assaulted by about 30 men "of foreign origin" who repeatedly molested and groped her and attempted to strip her of her clothes until the police managed to intervene. The victim was then brought to a nearby hospital. Two young German tourists reported being assaulted and groped for at least ten minutes by about two dozen men who "spoke Arabic". The girls lamented the indifference of the police, who reportedly failed to aid them even after hearing their cries for help. The two denounced the fact once they got back to their home city of Mannheim. On January 11 at least 18 suspects, all youngsters of North African origin, were identified and searched by Italian authorities, who were aided in their investigation by facial recognition software.

## Pakistan

More than 14,000 women were raped in Pakistan – nearly 11 a day, over a span of 4 years as of June 2022, according to official data, but fewer than three percent of the offenders were convicted.
Nighat Dad, a Pakistani woman and a lawyer & digital activist by profession, commented in an interview with VICE News, that protesting against rape in Pakistan is considered unusual. The culture of shaming and blaming survivors is the norm, which discourages women to talk about rape and sexual assault.
British television presenter Saira Khan said in 2016 that she had been sexually assaulted by a crowd in Pakistan in 2007 while filming a documentary for the BBC. She accused the BBC of having ignored the attack.
On 14 August 2021, Ayesha Akram, a social media celebrity, was sexually assaulted by a crowd at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore. In a video recording of the incident that went viral days later, the crowd was seen picking up the woman, throwing her up in the air between them, tearing off her clothes, and assaulting and groping her. The incident caused widespread outrage in Pakistan, with the Amnesty International and many prominent figures expressing their outrage and disgust over the assault.
On 8th September 2020, a French woman was gang raped on the desolate highways of Lahore. The woman was originally driving home with her kids at night, when she was apprehended by unidentified robber. They smashed her car window, dragged her to the nearby field, and raped her at gunpoint, making her children watch. They then ran away with her cash and jewellery. Umar Shaikh, the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) of Lahore, who served the chief investigator, and shifted the blame on the gang-rape victim, citing Islamic jurisdiction. His comments triggering nationwide protests by Pakistani women, which was crushed by counter-protesting muslim men, who used bricks, stones and sticks on them.
Muktar Mai, a Pakistani woman was gang raped in 2002, as a result of clan vengeance in her native village, for crimes allegedly committed by her brother. She spoke at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City in May 2006, drawing praise from UN officials for her bravery.
In May 2022, a 25-year old mother of two was gang-raped by three men on a moving train. The woman was on-board the Karachi-bound Bahauddin Zakaria Express train from Multan. Three men were arrested, tried and later acquitted due to lack of evidence.

## Sweden

Female participants at We Are Sthlm, a summer music festival for teenagers in Stockholm, reported in 2014 and 2015 that they had been surrounded and molested by groups of males, mostly teenage boys. Police were accused of having failed to publicize the attacks because the suspects were mostly from Afghanistan. The incidents came to light only after the 2016 New Year's Eve attacks in Germany when the Stockholm Police were accused of covering up the incidents, which they denied.

## United States

In July 1999, Woodstock 1999 took place and police subsequently investigated four complaints of sexual assault and rape, including digital rape, that allegedly occurred. At least one eyewitness, who was working as a volunteer at the event, reported to The Washington Post that he had seen a woman who was crowd surfing pulled down into the mosh pit and raped by five men.
On 11 June 2000 at least 44 women reported being sexually assaulted and robbed by a group of 60 men during the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York. The police were heavily criticized for their handling of the attacks.
In February 2001, witnesses saw groups of men grope women, tearing off their clothes and apparently digitally penetrating them during the Mardi Gras celebrations in Seattle, Washington.