Mass sexual assault is the collective sexual assault of women in public by groups of unrelated men. Typically acting under the protective cover of large gatherings, victims have reported being groped, stripped, beaten, bitten, penetrated and raped.
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Egypt
In Egypt, several mass sexual assaults have received wide international coverage. In Arabic, the term "mass sexual assaults" translates as تحرش جماعي (taḥarrush jamāʿī), often incorrectly transliterated in the media as "taharrush gamea" following a German police report into the 2016 New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany.
Germany
During New Year's Eve celebrations 2015/2016, incidents of mass sexual assault and numerous thefts occurred in Germany, mainly in Cologne city center.
India
Several cases of mass sexual assault have been reported in India. In July 2012, a teenager was sexually assaulted for up to 45 minutes by a large group of men outside a bar in Guwahati, Assam. No one intervened until the police arrived.
Pakistan
British television presenter Saira Khan said in 2016 that she had been sexually assaulted by a crowd in Pakistan in 2007 while filming a documentary for the BBC. She accused the BBC of having ignored the attack.
Sweden
Female participants at We Are Sthlm, a summer music festival for teenagers in Stockholm, reported in 2014 and 2015 that they had been surrounded and molested by groups of males, mostly teenage boys. Police were accused of having failed to publicize the attacks because the suspects were mostly from Afghanistan. The incidents came to light only after the 2016 New Year's Eve attacks in Germany when the Stockholm Police were accused of covering up the incidents, which they denied.
United States
In July 1999 Woodstock 1999 took place and Police subsequently investigated four complaints of sexual assault and rape, including digital rape, that allegedly occurred. At least one eyewitness, who was working as a volunteer at the event, reported to the Washington Post that he had seen a woman who was crowd surfing pulled down into the mosh pit and raped by five men.
On 11 June 2000 at least 44 women reported being sexually assaulted and robbed by a group of 60 men during the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York. The police were heavily criticized for their handling of the attacks.
In February 2001, witnesses saw groups of men grope women, tear off their clothes and apparently digitally penetrate them during the Mardi Gras celebrations in Seattle, Washington.
Vietnam
In July 2015, there were allegations that at least 20 girls at the Ho Tay water park in Hanoi, Vietnam, were reportedly sexually assaulted by a group of more than 70 men who assaulted, scratched and inappropriately touched them. Men groped the girls and tore their bikinis from their bodies, and Vietnamese officials blamed the girls for being attacked. Bystanders ignored the girls while they were assaulted, and people cheered and applauded the men who posted photos of themselves assaulting the women on Facebook.