Arabic gang-rape 'Taharrush' spreads to Europe

These attacks on women frequently go unpunished as it becomes difficult to trace those who carried out the assaults.

Berlin

: Police fear that the Arabic gangrape phenomenon ‘Taharrush’ has spread to German cities after a series of sexual attacks on women during the New Year.

Taharrush refers to collective harassment of women that is often carried out by large groups of men. These men assault lone women, either by groping or raping them. These men surround their victims in circles. Some of the men sexually assault women, while others often watch the women being assaulted.

Sometimes, the victim also gets robbed by these men during the ordeal.

These attacks on women frequently go unpunished as it becomes difficult to trace those who carried out the assaults.

The sexual attacks on women in Cologne city on the New Year was a type of Taharrush phenomenon where women in large numbers were sexually abused by several groups of men, most of them being asylum seekers.

The Taharrush gangrape phenomenon first came to light in the Western world when a South African reporter, Lara Logan, was sexually assaulted by men while she was reporting on the celebrations in Tahrir Square in Egypt in 2011.

CBS News correspondent Lara Logan was a victim of sexual attack and beating while she was reporting on the tumultuous events in Cairo.

Logan was in the city's Tahrir Square after Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down when she, her team and their security "were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration," CBS said in a statement.

The network described a mob of more than 200 people "whipped into a frenzy."

Separated from her crew in the crush of the violent pack, she suffered what CBS called "a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating." She was saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers, the network said.