Gender Issues
The pandemic caused a global surge in domestic violence. For victims with few options, abuse has become the new normal.
AMMAN, Jordan — By the time Umm Zeid caught the coronavirus in September, the Jordanian mother of three had spent 18 months losing a battle with what has become known as a shadow pandemic: domestic violence. Since the first wave of lockdowns, Umm Zeid has suffered in her small home in a city in northeast Jordan. In her 30s, she…
More violence, less income: Arab women bear the brunt of COVID-19, study finds
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,…