Finally name female in Germany: Gera was not an isolated case

The woman in Gera will be drawn by the scars on the neck and upper body for a lifetime that her husband’s attempted murder left. And yet she is lucky that she survived. Every second to third day, a woman in Germany loses her life through a female. So a murder of a woman because of her gender. Mostly through your partner or ex-partner-committed out of ownership, hatred and sexualized violence, often because the women want to separate.

Nevertheless, these acts are not always named as female. This is also the case in the Gera case – many media speak of an “arson attack”. That has to stop. It must now be clear in Germany that we have a serious problem with the murders of women. Every day a woman is victims of an attempted female female. In 2023, according to BKA, 938 girls and women became victims of attempted and completed female. 360 women and girls died.

The phenomenon is not only in Germany. In Italy, a draft law was therefore presented on March 8, the International Women’s Day, according to which femalitis should be considered a criminal offense. The farewell in parliament is considered safe. Germany should follow this example as soon as possible. The outgoing federal government decided on the violent assistance law shortly before the election. For this purpose, the federal government provides 2.6 billion euros for women’s shelters and advice centers and those affected by violence receive a legal claim to protection. An important success – but with a bitter aftertaste: Because the claim only applies from 2032. This is far too late. In addition, 14,000 places in women’s shelters are still missing. Murder threats and stalking of men of women are often not taken seriously.

The case in Gera has shaken some politicians a little and showed how cruel these crimes are. This was not an everyday happening, said a police spokeswoman after the crime. That is not entirely true – the only difference is that it happened to the public on a bright day in a tram and in the presence of witnesses. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser therefore calls for a stronger protection and aid system for women, an effective criminal prosecution of the perpetrators and the electronic ankle taps so that perpetrators can no longer approach endangered women.

It’s all good and right, but we are far from being if we don’t even manage to name the deeds as what they are: female and no “arson attacks” or “family dramas”. A sharper procedure against the perpetrators only works if the legal conditions are also created.

In Italy, the draft law states: “Who causes the death of a woman if the act as an act of discrimination or hatred against the injured person as a woman or to deny her the exercise of her rights or her freedom is punished with life imprisonment.”

In Germany there is already lifelong prison for murder. So why a new law that demands the same punishment? For two reasons: On the one hand, milder punishments have often been imposed on men in the past. An example from Italy, as it is in Germany in Germany: An entrepreneur had stabbed his pregnant lover – in 2022 a court in Palermo condemned him only 19 years in prison because he acted in the “Raptus”, that is, as an impetus.

The second reason is prevention: a collective awareness must be established by terms such as femicine. It is a bitter differentiation to other crimes, because this is the only way to prevent these acts. Only harder punishments will not protect women from female. The term must be firmly anchored in the code to develop methods, prevent them.

Anyone who still does not believe that a change in the law is absolutely necessary has been remembered by Article 213 of the Criminal Code. It was not until 1981 that the so -called “honor killing” was deleted from the German Criminal Code, which made a milder punishment possible. Even today, the killing of a person can be punished with homicide for reasons of “honor”. The perpetrator then gets away with a prison sentence of five to fifteen years – not lifelong.