IN 1969 THE IRANIAN EXILE Bahman Nirumand (b. 1936), a fierce critic of the shah's regime, was facing extradition from West Germany after extension of his leave to remain was refused. Ulrike Meinhof appealed to konkret readers to demonstrate their solidarity with him, but she used her regular column in the magazine to address the situation faced by his wife and daughter. “Alle reden vom Wetter” (Everybody Talks about the Weather) asks why protest on behalf of women and children is perceived as emotional rather than political. “It is unpolitical to protest over a woman's fate,” Meinhof complains: “what is experienced as unpolitical is the … oppression of women” (“Es ist unpolitisch, wegen der Frau zu protestieren … was da als unpolitisch empfunden wird, ist die … Unterdrückung der Frauen”). And yet the oppression of women needs to be understood not as separate from, but as part of, capitalism's structures:

Surprisingly little attention has been paid to Meinhof's engagement with the emerging West German women's movement. The slogan of that movement — the personal is political (das Private ist politisch) — informed not only her article on Nirumand, but the research into children's homes and young offenders that was a significant part of her journalistic work.