Russian women stuck in lockdown as abuse surges

MOSCOW: Ineta Akhtyamova’s husband flew into a rage in late April, about a month into Moscow’s coronavirus lockdown.

She was preparing a meal in the small apartment she shares with her partner when he exploded, calling her names, hitting her and shouting at her to get out.

“So off I went. I just could not take it anymore,” said Akhtyamova, a 50-year-old singer who lost her income due to confinement restrictions.

“I’m bad if I stay quiet. I’m bad if I talk. I’m bad if I make soup. I’m bad if I cook potatoes,” she told reporters.

When her partner hit her before, she would run to friends. This time she had nowhere to go.

Friends were reluctant to take her in over fears of coronavirus infection, and two women’s shelters turned her away because of Moscow’s city-wide quarantine.

With the help of a crisis centre, Akhtyamova finally found temporary shelter in a small, two-star hotel in eastern Moscow.

Rights groups say that domestic violence has surged around the world since the start of lockdowns, with the stress caused by social isolation and fears around financial security straining even healthy relationships.

The quarantine has hit victims of domestic violence especially hard — some have seen verbal hostility escalate into physical abuse, and for others routine beatings have become even more severe.

Women in Russia have been left especially vulnerable.

“The situation here is worse because there’s no law,” said Marina Pisklakova-parker, a women’s rights campaigner.

In 2017, President Vladimir Putin decriminalised some forms of domestic violence and most abusers can get away with a fine.

Advocates say the lack of legislation, including restraining orders, as well as a shortage of shelters nationwide and police who are unresponsive to appeals for help, have left Russian women unprotected.

Every year, nearly 16.5 million women across the country fall victim to domestic violence, according to activists’ pre-quarantine estimates.

Pisklakova-parker,founderoftheannawomen’s rights group, said they registered a 30 percent spike in calls to their nationwide hotline between February and late April. Had Russia adopted a domestic violence law, coping with the upsurge would have been easier, she said.

Last month, Pisklakova-parker and several other campaigners urged the government to urgently protect domestic abuse victims.

Authorities, they said, need to set up enough sheltersandconductanawareness-raisingcampaign on violence against women, among other measures.

Those calls have fallen on deaf ears.