Domestic violence victims suffer in isolation

Zoila fell fast for the soft-spoken day laborer, moving in with him last year just two weeks after their first date. But after El Salvador imposed a strict coronavirus lockdown, she says, the man she thought she knew became an inescapable menace.

“The quarantine changed everything,” she said.

Shut inside their one-room house in rural El Salvador, he began drinking heavily. Soon, she says, he was regularly violating the coronavirus curfew and seeing other women openly. He would return home at odd hours, wake her and demand meals. Drunk, he would taunt Zoila, 24 years old and pregnant, calling her worthless and threatening violence.

Then one morning, she says, he grabbed her by the throat, slamming her against the wall and attempting to rape her. When she resisted, she said, the punching began, stopping only when fluid began trailing down her leg. Zoila screamed, fearing a miscarriage.

“I remember that day, and I just want to cry,” said Zoila, who gave birth to a daughter in June. To protect their identities, the Washington Post is using only the first names of Zoila and Sandly, another woman who says she has been abused during the pandemic.

“I was pregnant,” Zoila said. “During what was supposed to be a time of joy for me, I felt only pain.”

For untold numbers of women and children around the globe, the coronavirus pandemic has meant a twofold threat: the risk of catching a deadly virus coupled with the peril of being locked in confined spaces with increasingly violent abusers.

Official statistics are mixed. In some countries, reports of abuse have risen during the pandemic; in others, including the United States, they’ve fallen. But people who work with victims say that in countries seeing fewer complaints, the numbers mask a darker reality. The closure of schools and day care centers means teachers and social workers have been unable to identify and report abuse.

A growing body of evidence suggests that incidents of domestic violence are rising as families struggle with restrictions on movement and mounting economic hardship.

Countries rich and poor have shown growing signs of a surge in domestic violence. Fifty-four percent of vulnerable women surveyed by CARE in Lebanon reported an increase in violence and harassment during the pandemic; 44 percent said they felt less safe at home.

In China’s Hubei province, domestic violence reports to police more than tripled during the lockdown there in February. Then-French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said reports of domestic violence jumped by more than 30 percent within the first two weeks of the country’s lockdown. The Catalan regional government in Spain reported a 20 percent increase in calls to its help line in the first few days of its confinement order, according to UNICEF.

There is precedent for increased abuse during health crises. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa, researchers with UNICEF and major charities found, violence against children, rapes and teenage pregnancies spiked.

“Sometimes, reported abuse cases are falling dramatically and you would think that violence is going down, but it’s just the opposite,” said Christina Wegs, the global advocacy director for sexual and reproductive health and rights for CARE. “The drop is reflecting that women and vulnerable people are not able to report what’s happening.”