We have all been overloaded with a constant flow of new information about the Covid-19 pandemic, whether it is the latest news about the virus, analysis of its implications for our future or advice from medical experts.
But one topic of pre-coronavirus relevance has been making headlines all over the world: domestic violence. Despite its pervasiveness, domestic violence is often taboo and the silence around it is one of the main reasons that it continues to shatter lives.
Unfortunately, it took a global health crisis to raise awareness and grab the world’s attention on this issue. In reality, domestic violence did not rise out of thin air with the onset of the pandemic. It was prevalent in our societies since before the days of the coronavirus. The outbreak has simply brought this hidden problem out into the open, or at least that is the case in Lebanon.
More than 30 per cent of all women in Lebanon have been subjected to some form of violence in their lifetimes. Getty
During times of crises, whether it be a natural disaster, an economic crash or a pandemic, gender-based violence – that is violence targeting women and girls – has a tendency to increase. The coronavirus pandemic is no different. In Lebanon, gender-based violence at home and in public spaces has been amplified not only by the nationwide lockdown but also because of the economic and banking crises that struck the country since November of last year.
These situations exacerbate ongoing problems within the household, and if a spouse or family member is prone to becoming violent, this tendency is only likely to increase as the family’s situation is pushed to the brink.
In five months, ABAAD’s emergency helplines have received the same number of calls as during the whole of 2019. ABAAD is an NGO that aims to end violence against women, and that I head. While this dramatic increase shows women are more prone to seek out our help during this difficult time, some callers have also been reaching out to us to seek advice, psychological or financial support, or simply to have someone to talk to.
Before the lockdown, ABAAD’s 24/7 helpline was mostly used to schedule appointments for face-to-face consultations and services, in addition to emergency calls from women in life-threatening situations due to violence. Today, the helpline has transformed into a means for vulnerable women to break the isolation they find themselves in and find a helping hand.
That is not to say that the lockdown did not lead to an increase in domestic abuse cases.The Interior Security Forces announced an increase of over 100 per cent in reported cases of domestic violence in Lebanon in March 2020, when a strict lockdown was enforced, compared to the same period last year.
But there has also been an increase in the severity of the violence that women are subjected to at home among emergency callers. At least two women who called us said they had received death threats from family members after showing flu-like symptoms consistent with coronavirus.
In five months, ABAAD's emergency helplines have received the same number of calls as during the whole of 2019
To understand this phenomenon, one must go back to pre-coronavirus days. Spouses and family members did not become violent towards women and children overnight with the lockdown. According to the UN, 33 per cent of women in Lebanon will experience at least one form of violence during their lifetime. Yet often, indications of violent behaviour are brushed off, or simply ignored. Our patriarchal societies tend to normalise aggressive male behaviours, and place the blame on the victim. The fact that the government has been slow to act, and that laws in place to protect women and children are rarely enforced, places an immense burden on women to deal with the violence and trauma on their own. Once couples and families are forced to live in self-isolation, they are also forced to live with the consequences of this long-standing issue.
To protect victims of violence and abuse in the household, all relevant stakeholders must pool their resources. Government entities, NGOs and international organisations such as the UN can work together to identify those who are at risk and provide them with shelter or relief.
Activists take part in a demonstration against sexual harassment, rape and domestic violence in Beirut. AFP
Realistic measures include allocating human and financial resources to existing structures that support victims of gender-based violence, as well as developing and promoting remote methods for reporting and counselling to protect victims from potential infection. Prevention, however, is key to helping reduce the number of girls and women subjected to violence. Unfortunately, economic and political hardship are likely to take a toll on Lebanese residents’ wellbeing, resulting in more violence or continued intensification of existing violence, as noted before.
Solving this issue requires a holistic solution that also provides both financial independence and legal protection to women trapped in abusive households. Those who commit crimes against women must be held accountable, and victims protected. We also need a cultural shift, to stop putting the blame on the victim and finding socially accepted justifications for the violence they endure.
Ghida Anani is the founder and director of ABAAD, a women's rights NGO
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Profile of RentSher
Started: October 2015 in India, November 2016 in UAE
Founders: Harsh Dhand; Vaibhav and Purvashi Doshi
Based: Bangalore, India and Dubai, UAE
Sector: Online rental marketplace
Size: 40 employees
Investment: $2 million
Explainer: Tanween Design Programme
Non-profit arts studio Tashkeel launched this annual initiative with the intention of supporting budding designers in the UAE. This year, three talents were chosen from hundreds of applicants to be a part of the sixth creative development programme. These are architect Abdulla Al Mulla, interior designer Lana El Samman and graphic designer Yara Habib.
The trio have been guided by experts from the industry over the course of nine months, as they developed their own products that merge their unique styles with traditional elements of Emirati design. This includes laboratory sessions, experimental and collaborative practice, investigation of new business models and evaluation.
It is led by British contemporary design project specialist Helen Voce and mentor Kevin Badni, and offers participants access to experts from across the world, including the likes of UK designer Gareth Neal and multidisciplinary designer and entrepreneur, Sheikh Salem Al Qassimi.
The final pieces are being revealed in a worldwide limited-edition release on the first day of Downtown Designs at Dubai Design Week 2019. Tashkeel will be at stand E31 at the exhibition.
Lisa Ball-Lechgar, deputy director of Tashkeel, said: “The diversity and calibre of the applicants this year … is reflective of the dynamic change that the UAE art and design industry is witnessing, with young creators resolute in making their bold design ideas a reality.”
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan v Juventus
Saturday, 10.45pm (UAE)
Watch the match on BeIN Sports
Anna and the Apocalypse
Director: John McPhail
Starring: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Mark Benton
Three stars
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
