“I started living in hell.” Life after Covid-19

Due to the outbreak of the Covid-19, severe mobility restrictions were introduced in many countries around the world in 2020, quarantine was announced in some countries, people were forced by law not to leave their homes, and soon after, experts spoke about the increase in domestic violence cases. Armenia, where a state of emergency was declared on March 15 of the same year, was not left out of all this.

– During the pandemic, many men lost their jobs, could not go to work abroad, stayed at home. Then came the stage when people started working remotely, that is, they were locked up at home. And when a person is in the same area for 24 hours, does not leave the house, does not consume the accumulated energy, it leads to an outburst of aggression, – says Hasmik Gorgyan, program manager of the “Women’s Support Center” NGO, adding that today women are more informed During the events, they were informed about their other centers, where they can apply in case of violence, and the adoption of the relevant law helped to take a step forward in the field.

In general, in March 2020, the Women’s Support Center hotline received 803 calls, 172 of which related to domestic violence. In April of the same year, 750 calls were received, of which 250 were related to domestic violence, in May – 915 calls, 256 of which were related to domestic violence. Comparing only these three months, Gorgyan notes that a 40% increase in alarms has been registered.

We often received calls from women who said that their husbands drank all day, a group of men gathered at home, drank and got drunk. “Alcohol consumption can be a reason for a person to give in to emotions, wake up the abuser and free his hands,” says Gorgyan.

The Office of the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia registered an increase in cases of domestic violence in the first days of the declaration of the state of emergency, in particular, in the period from March 15 to April 20, 15 reports of domestic violence were registered (5 cases were registered in March 2019).

– Public opinion is very important in this case. It is possible that society will change its attitude towards women who have been abused. Very often, notes are made, news is posted about how the woman was abused. We open the comments section, mainly negative lines are written about the victim: the woman is guilty, the woman should know her place. The same applies to murder cases. the woman is targeted again. “There are often comments where there are opinions that the woman has betrayed, the woman has provoked,” said Zaruhi Hovhannisyan, a human rights activist and member of the Coalition Against Violence Against Women.

Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women 2010-2020 has published a list of at least 80 women killed during the year. These women have been abused for years, they have not kept silent, they have spoken out, they have turned to relatives, friends and even law enforcement for help. However, they did not become audible, the negative attitude of the society was added. As a result, the ongoing violence eventually led to the murder.

Zaruhi Hovhannisyan notes that if in the past in Armenia the fact that women are subjected to violence was generally rejected, today the problem is raised, but in a second person. Women often report violence when they say it happened to an acquaintance. Experts already consider this a success, having hope that in the near future all stereotypes will be broken.

Full text in Armenian