German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/206, pp. 25976-25978.
Right honorable Frau President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
We today occupy ourselves with three motions which shall defend women and children from disrespect, coercion and violence; from polygamy, child marriage and genital mutilation.
Let us begin with the problematic of polygamy in Germany. As you know, in Islam men may take up to four wives. Such polygamous marriages are meanwhile widespread in Germany. Polygamy is nevertheless foreign to our legal order. It neglects the rights of the religiously married second and third wives. These have no claim to support and equalization of gains and no claim to inheritance. Most do not work, will be dealt with as “mother, single parent” and live on social benefits. That means that men who cannot support more than one wife in their native countries can do that in Germany. That ought not be. It occurs at the cost of the taxpayer.
What do we want to do to oppose this? We first of all demand [Drucksache 19/22705] of the Federal government to ascertain the number of polygamous marriages in Germany. There are in fact estimates that 30 percent of the Arab men in Berlin have multiple wives, yet no one actually knows what that exactly is. There is no public survey for that. It is just not wanted to openly state the extent of the problem.
As a further measure, the civil status law must be changed and the ban on religious prior weddings [Voraustrauung] be re-introduced. Earlier, one might only be religiously married if previously married by a civil office. Especially must culpability according to §172 of the StGB [criminal code], thus the ban on double marriages, also be extended to religious marriages. That will have the consequence that in the future only one, single religious marriage can take place after one, single civil marriage; for we still live in Germany and not in the Orient. With us, double, triple and quadruple marriages have nothing to lose, forced marriages even less so.
The second motion [Drucksache 19/22706] includes the demand to the Federal government to finally effectively oppose child marriage. This for long has not been done. In 2017, a law to oppose child marriage did in fact come into force; it nevertheless for long remains ineffective. A study of the Terre de Femmes has shown that, in the first two years since the law’s coming into force, merely 813 cases will have been registered nationwide, and all of 10 child marriages were annulled. It is unbearable that, four years after this law’s coming into force, the factual number of child marriages is, as before, unknown. In some Federal States, statistics were not once conducted.
The massive discrepancy between the numbers from Berlin and Bavaria shows how deficiently the practical implementation of the law will have been handled in the States. While in Berlin within one year only 3 child marriages were ascertained, in Bavaria in the same time frame 370 child marriages were registered. Here is plainly lacking any political will to enforce the law with the necessary consequence. For the minors concerned, that is a catastrophe.
We therefore demand the nationwide statistical ascertainment of, among others, child marriage. The state must staff the advisory board so that they can identify those concerned and in fact help them. Ladies and gentlemen, each of us has in mind the marriage pictures of 70 year-old, bearded old men with 9 year-old little brides. Such alien cultural traditions may not be allowed to begin to gain a foothold here in this country.
Gökay Akbulut (Linke): That is your
fantasies! That is your parallel world!
Child marriages are to be outlawed and opposed; for we still live in Germany and not in Afghanistan.
A third motion [Drucksache 19/22704] is about the defense of women and children against genital mutilation. The number of female genital mutilations in the last three years explodes; it has increased by 44 percent. Almost 70,000 women are already affected and almost 15,000 girls acutely endangered.
Bernd Baumann (AfD): In Germany!
– In Germany. Female genital mutilation is a bestial abuse which in Germany is a crime under the law. Current abuses have been routinely undertaken amidst catastrophic hygiene conditions without anaesthetic, with shards of glass and razor blades. It is bestial, it is primitive, and it is most profoundly misogynist. Many of the little girls concerned die as a proximate consequence of the operations; yet for the survivors there also remains massive physical and spirtitual damages. We are experiencing Stone Age methods in the 21st Century.
Vice-president Claudia Roth: Please
come to a conclusion.
A number of cases of female genital mutilation however unfortunately remain unrecognized and cannot be prosecuted according to criminal law.
Vice-president Claudia Roth: Please
come to a conclusion.
We thus demand identification campaigns and prevention such as the introduction of a legal obligation to report. France already does this. Young girls must finally and consequentially be defended against such bestial traditions.
Vice-president Claudia Roth: Please
come to a conclusion.
Anything like it has no place in Germany.
Many thanks.
Gökay Akbulut (Linke): You too have no place in Germany!
[trans: tem]
