‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown

<h4>Background</h4> 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 du...

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Autores principales:	Bianca Dekel, Naeemah Abrahams
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e22f71cf69524a61845455d4736c695f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e22f71cf69524a61845455d4736c695f2021-11-04T06:49:33Z‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown1932-6203https://doaj.org/article/e22f71cf69524a61845455d4736c695f2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8553161/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203<h4>Background</h4> 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. <h4>Aim</h4> 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. <h4>Methods</h4> Individual, telephonic interviews were conducted with 16 women living in domestic violence shelters within three Provinces during South Africa’s lockdown period. <h4>Results</h4> 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. <h4>Conclusion</h4> 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.Bianca DekelNaeemah AbrahamsPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Bianca Dekel Naeemah Abrahams ‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown
description	<h4>Background</h4> 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. <h4>Aim</h4> 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. <h4>Methods</h4> Individual, telephonic interviews were conducted with 16 women living in domestic violence shelters within three Provinces during South Africa’s lockdown period. <h4>Results</h4> 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. <h4>Conclusion</h4> 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.
format	article
author	Bianca Dekel Naeemah Abrahams
author_facet	Bianca Dekel Naeemah Abrahams
author_sort	Bianca Dekel
title	‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown
title_short	‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown
title_full	‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown
title_fullStr	‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown
title_full_unstemmed	‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown
title_sort	‘i will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: experiences of abused women seeking shelter during south africa’s covid-19 lockdown
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e22f71cf69524a61845455d4736c695f
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‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown

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