“Do you count as a daughter?”, my witch giggles over my shoulder, and I have to admit that I don’t know. And not knowing has become a problem, because recently, being the right kind of daughter has become a political issue in Germany.
But let’s start at the beginning of this new political daughter trouble.
A few days ago, our chancellor Friedrich Merz has made a terrifying statement about his plans concerning migration. He has not announced a plan to fight poverty, support education and international cooperation, or strengthen police and city administration where needed (for any kind of thing). No, he had to say that there still was a problem in the German “Stadtbild”, which means city appearance. But he also reassured everyone that he was working on it.
“So what now”, my witch giggles into the autumn night. “Is the spray painting next to platform 11 ready to be deported back home?” We have never feared being outside at night, and yes, this also becomes an issue in times like this. Because which fat, white, almost bald Daddy wants a daughter that does not need protection?!
After waves of protesters criticizing our chancellor for calling a part of the population a problem o tfhe “Stadtbild”, he aimed for an even more terrifying response. When asked to explain the meaning behind those words, he simply said that we should all ask our daughters. And then he smiled and left it at that.
Problematic rhetoric
In the days that followed, a few interesting comments circulated the feeds and the news. For once, there is a quote of no one less terrifying that Goebbels himself (responsible for Propaganda in Nazi-Germany) who supposedly wrote into his diary that the Jews were killing the mood and destroying the city appearance. Many fact checking pages have confirmed that this is real. He wrote it into his diary, shortly before mass murder began.
Another reaction to these statement was that of daughters not agreeing with him. Under the slogan “Wir sind die Töchter” (meaning: We are the daughter) a lot of people, gave statements, wrote blog posts. And I shared their work on my personal accounts (since it was all in German I did it only there), to help them become louder. Then, other people posted images of famous deaths in the past few years that people traced back to some people with migration background, and a new brutal question was out there: Who are the daughters?
The overlooked 70 Percent
“It’s a question of who is allowed to hurt you”, my witch knows, and the words feel like a punch in my stomach. She has a point though.
While the debate is about the feeling of threat in public spaces, and the few but famous cases of young women being assaulted out there, another number suddenly became popular. It’s the number of 70 percent. Because at least 70 percent of sexual assaults happen in private places. It is mostly between family members or similarly intimate people.
“Like I said”, my witch giggled. “This is not really about girls being kept safe. This is about who gets to torture them.”
I have experienced this kind of abuse falling into the 70 percent. I was never scared of the dark, of train stations at night, but Daddies that desperately needed to protect.
And for those Daddies I would probably not count as a daughter.
When the politicians from the party Merz belongs to saw a first wave of daughters protesting going their way through Berlin, one of them tweeted that everything (not everyone!) that was off work at 4 PM was protesting now, and stated that it was only a couple of hundred, while in fact it was a couple pf thousands …
“So, I don’t count as a daughter”, I summarize the trouble we’re in to my witch. “Because I don’t want Daddy to protect me, and because I was hurt by others than his political enemies.”
And this discussion is not about the safety of women anymore. It is not about the failing infrastructure projects in our cities, or about the growing poverty problem. It is not about ending misery on earth to stop humans seeking refuge.
It is just about parting people. Into those that belong and those that don’t. Those that deserve safety and those that don’t. Those whose pain counts, and those who suffer in secret. Into those that the Daddies want to protect, and those they don’t care about. Into those that work 9 to 5, and those that have schedule Daddy disapproves of.
It’s about tearing society apart.
It is disgusting. I am deeply disgusted by this way of making politics. I will need to become more active against this dangerously dehumanizing development.
I am a daughter that broke free.
“Without eating babies!”, my witch complements me.
We live in dark times.
https://katapult-magazin.de/de/artikel/ist-der-vergleich-zulaessig
Mistress witch writes 
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