Gender and Health Research Unit, The South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South African.
PLoS One. 2021 Oct 28;16(10):e0259275. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259275. eCollection 2021.
In April 2020, the United Nations predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a 'calamitous' impact on the lives of women. This was based on concerns about an upsurge in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) arising from increased opportunities for relational conflict due to forced co-existence and therefore additional time spent with abusive partners.
Research has shown an increase in IPV during times of crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented circumstances and stress, and opportunities to do research to understand whether the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on IPV experiences were limited. Thus, the present study aimed to understand women's experiences of being in and leaving an abusive relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Individual, telephonic interviews were conducted with 16 women living in domestic violence shelters within three Provinces during South Africa's lockdown period.
Findings reveal that the public health measures implemented by the South African Government to curb the spread of the virus, may have placed vulnerable groups at increased risk of violence. Specifically, lockdown likely magnified the risk for escalation of abuse in families already experiencing IPV prior to COVID-19. The study highlights an IPV and COVID-19 relationship, showing that the gender insensitive pandemic control measures, such as stay at home orders and travel restrictions, likely placed women at risk of increased abuse. Given the recurrency of COVID-19 epidemic waves, attention must be given to gender disparities or many South African women may experience worse outcomes.
This study reminds us that being ordered to stay at home is not always the safest option for women and thus, in a country with one of the highest levels of GBV, it becomes imperative to ensure that IPV safeguards are integrated into COVID-19 measures. It also becomes evident that COVID-19 requires enhanced ways of responding by paying attention to gender disparities.
2020 年 4 月，联合国预测 COVID-19 大流行将对妇女的生活产生“灾难性”影响。这是基于对由于被迫共存而导致关系冲突增加，从而与虐待伴侣相处时间增加，亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）增加的担忧。
研究表明，在危机时期 IPV 会增加。COVID-19 大流行带来了前所未有的情况和压力，因此有机会进行研究以了解 COVID-19 大流行是否对 IPV 经历产生了影响，但机会有限。因此，本研究旨在了解妇女在 COVID-19 大流行期间处于和离开虐待关系中的经历。
在南非封锁期间，在三个省的家庭暴力庇护所中，对 16 名生活在其中的妇女进行了单独的电话采访。
研究结果表明，南非政府为遏制病毒传播而采取的公共卫生措施可能使弱势群体面临更大的暴力风险。具体而言，封锁可能使在 COVID-19 之前已经经历过 IPV 的家庭中的虐待行为升级的风险加大。该研究强调了 IPV 和 COVID-19 之间的关系，表明性别不敏感的大流行控制措施，如居家令和旅行限制，可能使妇女面临更多的虐待风险。鉴于 COVID-19 疫情的反复出现，必须关注性别差距，否则许多南非妇女可能会经历更糟糕的结果。
本研究提醒我们，被命令留在家中对妇女来说并不总是最安全的选择，因此，在一个 GBV 水平最高的国家之一，必须确保将 IPV 保护措施纳入 COVID-19 措施。显然，COVID-19 需要通过关注性别差距来增强应对方式。
