Women's rights during the pandemic

Baku/29.04.22/Turan: GENDER PORT has prepared a research report on the topic "Women's Rights and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Azerbaijan" in cooperation with the UK Government Conflict, Stability and Security Fund and RİQC (Rasional İnkişaf uğrunda Qadınlar Cəmiyyəti - Women's Society for Rational development).

RİQC Chairman Shahla Ismail answers questions about the research report in the “Difficult Question” program.

The study conducted by RİQC covers several areas: rights and opportunities, education, health, social problems, work, family and domestic problems, domestic violence, Shahla Ismail said.

“Comparison of the results of the World Economic Forum 2020 with the results of 2021 showed that in the course of only one year, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation with women's rights has become somewhat more complicated. At the same time, the same trends are repeated in Azerbaijan as in the rest of the world. And the world, on average, in terms of gender equality index rolled back by 36 years. As for Azerbaijan, it, in all likelihood, rolled back even further,” Ismail said.

In her opinion, two phenomena were observed during the pandemic in Azerbaijan - on the one hand, men began to devote more time to their families. On the other hand, over time, excesses began.

“The surveys we conducted showed that in the first months of the pandemic, family members, in particular men, being forced to spend more time at home with their families, became more interested in household chores and family. However, such a long "reclusion" could not but affect the psyche of people. Social and economic problems that arose in connection with the pandemic began to be superimposed on this,” she noted, adding that in Azerbaijan, domestic violence began to increase gradually - over time, while, in the world as a whole, the initial stage of the pandemic was marked by a sharp increase in domestic violence. .

Ismail also noted that COVID-19 disrupted the long-term plans of many people, damaged education, and limited access to healthcare.

“All this only increased tension in society. In the end, all this could not but result in family conflicts, their number began to grow sharply,” she said.

According to Ismail, in Azerbaijan, according to official statistics, cases of domestic violence increased by 34% during the pandemic. At the same time, she noted that these statistics most likely do not reflect the whole picture of ongoing processes.—0—