‘Taharrush Gamea’ and the violence in Piazza Duomo on New Year’s Eve

Question for written answer E-000118/2025 to the Commission Rule 144 Silvia Sardone (PfE) Subject: ‘Taharrush Gamea’ and the violence in Piazza Duomo on New Year’s Eve Many reports indicate that a number of women of different nationalities were sexually harassed in Milan’s Piazza Duomo during the New Year’s Eve celebrations. The women were surrounded and abused by dozens of young men of foreign background. Investigators believe this very serious incident to be a case of ‘taharrush gamea’, a phenomenon of Arab origin in which groups of men use sexual assault to insult women in front of everyone for daring to appear in public. Europe’s cities are not new to incidents such as this (examples include Milan in 2022 and Koln in 2016), proof that women are increasingly seen as objects to be controlled, a view that is increasingly widespread in Muslim communities. In the light of the above, what has been done in recent years: 1. To combat the above phenomenon? 2. To push back against the idea that women should be subjugated, a widely held view in many Muslim communities? 3. To prevent Islamist ‘parallel societies’ on the outskirts of our cities from doing away with women’s rights and imposing their values? Submitted: 14.1.2025 PE769.000v01-00