Carnival kicks off in Cologne amid harassment debates

On the first day of Weiberfastnacht (Women’s Carnival) in the German city of Cologne, the majority of revelers were women.

The street party started Thursday marking the beginning of the week-long festival with Rosenmontag (Rose Monday processions) as the most prominent day.

The organizers have set up a women-only safe zone, fearing alleged sexual assaults that shocked Germany in 2015. The psychologists would be available in the zone to help women in the event of harassment, said organizers.

The scandal hit the New Year’s Eve in 2015 resulted in more than 1,100 criminal complaints including about 480 for sexual assault. The authorities said groups of men encircled women at the Cologne event, groping and robbing them. The witnesses described the gangs as foreign men with “North African or Arabic” appearance.

The women-only zones have also been created for other public activities for the past two years after similar attacks took place in Hamburg and Stuttgart in the country.

A crane truck is used as a roadblock to secure carnival revelers celebrating the festival.

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