A new survey by Arab Barometer adds numbers to the narrative that COVID has led to a harsher reality for women in the Middle East and North Africa.
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned Heba Mordaa’s life upside down. “Ever since the lockdowns started in March 2020, my work has been deteriorating,” the 29-year-old manicurist and mother of three in Beirut says. “At first, the shop owner deducted our salaries because we had no customers coming in. Then, in July 2020, the owner decided that we will start offering home service, which my husband completely refused. I had to leave my job in August 2020 and stay at home. Since I am a mother of three kids, I remained without a job for the whole school year 2020-2021.”
Mordaa’s professional set back and her involuntary return to life as housewife and stay-at-home mom is a common COVID-related turn of events for many Arab women. “Women are bearing the brunt at home and at work,” concludes the latest Arab Barometer’s survey on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in the Middle East…
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