Does the virus see a gender? The answer is NO. Then why does it seem the way that COVID-19 is impacting people of a specific gender in a specific way?

The crisis started in December, 2019 and have caused havoc in personal, familial and social life of millions of people trapped within it. This “trap”, for some people was being able to relive a good time with families and friends and self-healing activities while for others, this turned into a literal trap. I am referring to the women who fell victim of gender-based violence where COVID-19 lockdown played a vital role. Based on how significantly it is affecting a gender, this has been named as a shadow pandemic.

According to UN women, The term “shadow pandemic” has been used to refer the maltreatment of women as it is increasing in proportion with the increase in COVID-19 cases which imply lockdown jurisdiction, making the form of abuse easier for the abuser.

UN Women has reported that,

almost 1 in 2 women reported that they or a woman they know experienced a form of violence since the COVID-19 pandemic.

1 in 4 women are feeling less safe at home while existing conflict has increased within households since the pandemic started.

3 in 5 women also think that sexual harassment in public spaces has gotten worse during COVID-19.

They were hurt by other family members (21%) or that other women in the household were being hurt by the family members (19%).

UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has predicted that the rate of gender-based violence will increase and at least 15 million cases of domestic violence around the world will take place for every 3 months that the lockdown is extended.

Interesting stats, right?

Intuitively, there is little doubt that in stressful times like COVID-19 pandemic, being confined indoors without access to peer groups, family and other support systems, the increased risk must raise concerns and be tackled strategically. ‘A pandemic within a pandemic’, shows how even if we find the cure and vaccine for COVID-19, the latter remains unaddressed to the extent it should be. Even though the United Nations created a Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (United Nations, 1993) recognizing violence against women and suggested actions, this was non-visionary in terms of a crisis situation like COVID-19 pandemic. So it is obvious, why there is a massive gap in addressing the pandemic within the pandemic in order to introduce government policy and ensure its implementation.

The term “shadow pandemic” has been used to refer this ever-growing maltreatment of women as it is increasing in proportion with the increase in COVID-19 cases which imply lockdown jurisdiction, making the form of abuse easier for the abuser. To answer the whys behind this phenomenon, this paper seeks to assess the increased vulnerabilities of violence against women in both online and offline modalities while explaining COVID-19 as a shadow pandemic.

Feminists argue that domestic violence is a result of gender inequalities of patriarchal societies and is used as a weapon to showcase masculine powers. In such societies, men sustain their privilege to enforce their sexual rights through use of violence, including rape. Feminist theory also relates rape to gender based preconceived attitudes. This perspective shows how gender norms facilitate sexual violence against women. “Men are supposed to be aggressive, dominant and women are born to serve men’s sexual needs” - views like these are the major reasons behind why rape is still a debated issue when it comes to criminological analysis.

Another theory that exposes social exploitation of women is the cultural spill over theory. According to the theory, there must be other cultural elements that facilitates the legitimization of the heinous act from society’s view. Such as validated portrayal of men who abuse women in media, objectifying women, social judgement etc.

Social disorganization theory shows how geographical mobility for any reason or any crisis (including pandemic) is also associated with gender violence. Researchers predict that social disorganization increases cultural support for violence against women. Patterns of this disorganization contributes to the normative support for violence.

3 points on the whys behind this vulnerability can been revealed which I divide as outdoor vulnerability, indoor vulnerability and online vulnerability of young women due to the pandemic.

Since the roads are being less crowded during lockdown and social distancing, women do not feel safe while being alone, particularly after evening, as according to them, they feel there is scope of sexual violence. Like sexual harassment, domestic violence is another extremely common form of gender-based violence in Bangladesh. In a patriarchal society like in Bangladesh, women are seen as a domestic homemaker who has the liability of fulfilling the family members’ expectations. Women who fail to do that, often fall victim of domestic violence by either the husband or the in-laws which ranges from physical torture such as marital rape to even murder in many cases. The reason behind this increased domestic torture is, the wives are spending more time with the perpetrators than before which is allowing them to malpractice their patriarchal ideologies on a bigger space. Beside housewives, violence against girls is seen in many other social relationships. Such as, parents abusing their daughters, girls being exploited by their relatives, friends and peers etc. since the pandemic has the socially “inferior” gender to be confined with the “superiors.”

COVID-19 has brought humans closer to cyber space like never before. Globalization has allowed people to express themselves on the internet however they want. And this has immensely increased the scope of cyberviolence. According to Council of Europe, Cyberviolence is referred to as online behaviours that are criminally or non-criminally assault, or can lead to assault, of an individual’s physical, psychological or emotional well-being. 2020 was the year of internet usage. As social distancing and lockdowns became the new norms, communicating through cyberspace was done in almost every sector. There is no denying that this helped in making and keeping connections between relations alive, but, as everything comes with a bad side too, we saw the highest amount of cyberviolence in 2020 as well. Sexual objectification, harassment, insults, bullying, trolling etc. were on rampage. And as always, women were the prime target of gender-based violence in cyberspace too. Reasons being the anonymity and increased access to explicit contents on the internet such as pornography.

So, how to deal with it?

Eliminating the pandemic within the pandemic will be a mammoth task to do. Starting with of course, policy reformation. As discussed, Bangladesh does not have any solid legal policy to deal with cyberviolence against women. Although it is advised to call the National Emergency Service, 999 while in need, it does a little to nothing to serve the purpose. Strict laws must be enacted to protect women in cyberspace. Empowering women should be a key to solve gender-based crimes. And by empowering, I do not mean to be educated and self-dependant women; it includes standing against the wrong and the wrong-doer, standing for herself, physically and mentally. Women should be encouraged to take part in policy making. In cases, they must participate to become the center of policy making, playing a pivotal role as policy maker. They must be given the power to ensure that vulnerable women and girls have their concerns and needs identified as fast as possible making sure that suitable interventions are applied; especially when vulnerable girls and women are confined with their abusers due to a pandemic. These organizations must speak up on behalf of vulnerable women. Both men and women must acknowledge the vulnerability of women and girls due to COVID-19.

In Bangladesh, people believe in shared responsibility of gender-based violence, connecting the victim’s demography to why they get abused! In cases of domestic violence, women are viewed as a puppet of the husband who is expected to listen to whatever he commands. His commands are her wish. And if she does not obey, it is the right of the man to verbally, physically or sexually abuse that woman. This is a controversial concern where most feminist disagree to acknowledge shared responsibility of a women, and rightly so. The year, 2020, with COVID-19 has been severely rough in gender-based violence reports in Bangladesh. The alarming prevalence of gender based violence has initiated debate over whether the victims and the survivors had any role in it. Popular beliefs like “ek haate taali baje na”, “shamir payer niche stree er behesht” and “khabare khola rakhle machhi boshbei” circulated throughout the forums of sensationalized headlines of violence against women. Mainstream social media was dominated by this “shared responsibility” debate. Many cases initiated public protest demanding swift justice for victims. Question arises; will capturing and punishing the offender really bring justice to the girl who suffered the physical and mental destruction? Will this eliminate rape from the society? Will men fear “justice system” and stop rape? Will the society acknowledge that there’s no shared responsibility of a victim for what was intended and committed solely by a man? I don’t have any answer to that. But if we study the pattern, we might see there’s little to no use of blaming the victims for an act where they did not contribute at all.