'Double Plague': Sexual Violence in The Age of Lockdowns

With all the crises the world is going through today, an increasing amount of fear, uncertainty, stress and financial deprivation has sparked an environment enabling diverse forms of violence. Emotional illiteracy has been clearly reflected in the rising rate of domestic violence, child abuse and elder neglect.

Since the beginning of lockdowns, reports on domestic abuse cases have risen in many countries across the world. In its policy brief on “Impact of COVID-19 on women,” The United Nations reported that globally 243 million women and girls aged between 15 and 49 have been subject to sexual and/or physical violence by their partners during the past year. The rate of this “shadow pandemic” is expected to further rise with the growing health, security and financial problems.

On Sept. 6, 2020, the Washington Post also published an article by Anthony Fajola and Ana Herrero showing how domestic violence against women, referred to as the “double plague” have shown a rising wave in rich and poor countries alike. It has reached 94 percent in Columbia from March to May 2020.

Domestic violence reports also rose by more than 30 percent in France since the lockdowns, and similarly in many countries in Europe and North America. They have even tripled in China. In Lebanon, 54 percent of women surveyed by CARE reported that domestic abuse has increased during the pandemic. In the United States, according to Hopkins Medicine, the rate of murder-suicide, of a male killing his female partner then himself, has increased since the outbreak.

Even prior to the pandemic, one in three women globally experience partner physical violence. This devastating fact implies negative impacts on women’s well-being, threatening their lives and their families and limiting their full participation in society.

The global cost of violence against women, from burdens on health care to legal expenses to productivity losses, is estimated at a total of $1.5 trillion (UN WOMEN, 2020), a number that is on the rise during the pandemic, with a rate exceeding 137 femicides daily.

On the legal side, 155 countries have at least passed laws on domestic violence (World Bank 2020). Nevertheless, many countries still did not enforce these laws. Lebanon for instance, has no unified civil code, which leaves the issues of divorce, children custody and property right to the religious courts, which mostly rule in favor of men. Hence nothing is done and violence keeps escalating, threatening women and children’s lives while abusers remain unpunished.

While key laws, legislations and execution decrees are urged to be adopted by the authorities, understanding the roots behind this growing surge in violence is equally important for crafting policies and programs to alleviate this “double plague.”

Emotional illiteracy among men is one of the major causes of such acts of violence. In fact, the constant threat of high unemployment, job loss, financial incapacity, lack of security and health care along with the fear from the pandemic itself, are all burdens that weakens one’s power and ability to protect and support oneself and his family.

But to reinforce their “male power,” many men exercise their masculinity by punishing women, and sometimes children, and practicing diverse forms of abuse and violence against them. It is a way to express their vulnerability and toughness at the same time, especially when they are taught since childhood that they have to suppress emotion and distinct themselves from feminine characteristics to gain respect from other men and prove themselves in their society.

The failure to meet social expectations of “successful masculinity” and thus the threat of losing this patriarchal privilege may generate in them an internal crisis of “manhood” identity. This constant need of “I am the man” leads them to build an “invisible wall” of toughness and resistance to truly identify, express and control their emotions. They learn to become emotionally illiterate, hiding their emotions and believing that the only acceptable emotion is anger, and anger promotes violence. Violence is thus used as a tool to recreate honor and control.

This “emotional illiteracy” impedes one’s ability for self-control. Emotional illiteracy, the inability of a person to identify, understand and respond to emotions in oneself and others, is also mirrored in the increasing numbers of divorces, distressed families, depression, suicides and crimes. Many of the problems in modern society are related to the inability of people to manage their emotions and empathize with others.

Understanding the harmful behavior masculinity is performed in this patriarchal world is one step to eradicate it from the root, preventing future generations from further becoming prisoners of their own masculinity. It is thus a crucial time to “unlearn” these gender expectations, starting from including socio-emotional learning in the education curriculum, to launching open dialogues within communities on cross-cultural issues on gender attitudes and roles.

Emotional literacy is as important as the literacy in writing and reading, in preventing many social diseases, be it violence, harassment, drug abuse, racism or other illnesses. It can contribute to positive relationships, success, tolerance and better quality of life. And most importantly it builds a healthy society free from abuse, discrimination and marginalization, a society where all emotions are respected and treated.

Dima El Hassan is a consultant at the Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development.