BRUISED AND BATTERED WITH NO PLACE TO HIDE

How Coronavirus is changing lives of women affected by conflict

Lack of resources is only part of the problem in current or former warzones: Syria has lost roughly half of its doctors since the beginning of the war; and travel restrictions and global lockdown mean that international aid organizations are sending fewer people in the field.

Refugees and those displaced by conflict are dependent on outside help, now made even more difficult to provide due to lack of funding and access. Often, the displaced are not only unable to utilize social distancing due to overcrowding; they lack the ability to practice even the most basic protection against the virus: handwashing. Refugee camps make Coronavirus prevention impossible and treatment unobtainable.

Coronaviurs presents an additional layer of insecurity for women who, as a group, are disproportionately affected by conflict: prior to the pandemic, for example, as a result of the war and subsequent displacement, Syrian woman’s life expectancy plummeted by 20 years since 2011. Maternal mortality rates and increase in numbers of child marriages are only the most visible statistics in that trend.

According to the figures provided by UN Women, 240 million women had been subjected to physical or sexual violence by their domestic partners since last April. Reported incidents since the outbreak shows a significant increase of around 30 percent on average. These figures are of course less readily available when it comes to women in warzones or refugee camps, since there are very few mechanisms in place to provide help in those situations.

Women whose lives have been derailed by war are already at greater risk of gender violence.

Tamara Bralo, Journalist

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