The Palestinian NGO’s Network (PNGO) published a fact sheet on the conditions of Palestinian women during the outbreak of COVID-19 crises. The paper reviews the impact of precautionary measures on the situation of women in Palestine in terms of economic, social, and cultural contexts.
The paper was prepared by Andalib Adwan, Community Media Center Director, as part of the "Palestinian Civil Society Organizations Approaches to Face Future Challenges" project, which was implemented in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
The rates of poverty and unemployment among women have increased due to the closure imposed on the business sector. As a result, women who work in the unofficial private sector faced the awful threat of losing their sole source of income. The same situation reached women who worked in daily-wages jobs as well.
The paper pointed to the noticeable increase of gender-based violence because of the lockdown period. Working remotely and closing workplaces cast a black shadow over women's lives as they started to spend more time with their violent husbands. This situation was a hotbed for fights, that developed to murder. Other women have had no choice but to flee their homes to seek protection from the concerned authorities.
Furthermore, the paper clarified the different forms of gender-based violence that emerged during the Corona pandemic ranging from economic violence, bullying, insults, physical and psychological violence.
The paper emphasized that precautionary measures also increased the burdens of working and non-working women, who have committed themselves to stay in their homes and work remotely. Their burdens do not end there, but they have to take care of their children, who are at different educational levels.
In the same context, the paper put on display the suffering of women in quarantine centers as they had no privacy and faced many problems in matters like using the toilet. quarantined women did not receive any psychological support since they were in constant fear of getting infected. Another obstacle that women faced is the crowded rooms and places during the period of quarantine, which was held on school premises.
The paper recommended the necessity of working to include women in working and emergency committees to benefit from their deep experiences in managing crises as their lives is a crisis.
Moreover, the paper stressed the need to work on improving and developing the equipment in the official quarantine places in a way that preserves the dignity, rights, and privacy of women, and to provide the necessary healthcare, especially for sick ones. The paper recommended the necessity of working to include women in working and emergency committees to benefit from their deep experiences in managing crises as their lives is a crisis.
Moreover, the paper stressed the need to work on improving and developing the equipment in the official quarantine places in a way that preserves the dignity, rights, and privacy of women, and to provide the necessary healthcare, especially for sick ones.