The German Foreign Office is investigating the allegations. Blue and pink lights shine across a stage as a woman in a mohawk dances next to a white-haired man who sputters garbled sounds into a microphone. A band plays rock music behind them. A transgender woman clad in traditional Pakistani clothes twirls to the beat. The band finishes their set and the woman with the mohawk asks the crowd for a round of applause for the man, whom she refers to as “goray chacha”—white uncle. The “white uncle” is Holger Ziegeler, Germany’s top diplomat in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city. And these are the scenes from a video shot in November at Scrapfest, an intimate event the German consulate funded under Ziegeler and one of the first public queer festivals to ever be held in Pakistan. Homosexuality is a crime in the country, and openly queer people are prone to violent backlash from people who want it to stay that way. The event was meant to serve as a safe space for the city’s marginalised LGBTQ community, but several attendees have accused the diplomat of harassing multiple women and groping a woman at the venue. They believe he exploited his access and status as a funder to sexualize and violate indigenous queer people at an event meant to celebrate them. The allegations are currently being investigated by the German Federal Foreign Office and have caused outrage among Pakistan’s LGBTQ community. (…) The groping victim, who declined to be interviewed, gave consent to Khan to recount the incident to VICE World News. She told Khan that Ziegeler groped her buttocks while she was standing next to him off the stage, right after Khan thanked Ziegeler in front of the audience.
via vice: Drunk Diplomat Accused of Groping Woman at Queer Event His Country Sponsored
