Source: Wilson Center
Author(s): Moushira Khattab
Original Link: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/criminalization-gender-based-violence-legal-obligation
The COVID-19 pandemic, which spread worldwide in early in 2020, heightened the already grave risks widely faced by women across the MENA region. Women’s rights organizations, helplines, and shelters for survivors of domestic violence in some MENA countries reported an increase in calls for support or recorded a rise in cases of GBV. In Algeria, at least 39 cases of murder or “intentional assault and battery” resulting in death were recorded by the Centre of Information on the Rights of Women and Children during the COVID-19 lockdown, with women’s rights groups warning that the true number of cases was likely to be higher.2 At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges facing women in Egypt increased. For example, many women had to take on a new role as the family doctor. Incidences of violence against children and harmful practices increased in the villages of Upper Egypt as well.
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