The weight of the pandemic falls on women – Rafia Zakaria

A year ago the world was very different. The rhythm of the days was different, the time management was different, people behaved differently, and they had different fears. An expression of that long gone time was the division of spaces between men and women. In Pakistan, where they account for less than thirty percent of the workforce, women mostly stayed at home while men went to work. When the men left the house in the morning, the women devoted themselves to repetitive tasks such as cleaning the house and cooking, tasks that allowed each family to function more or less efficiently.

With the pandemic, everything changed. Men started staying at home because they no longer had jobs or because their superiors wanted them to work remotely. Thus disappeared the brief moments of quiet that wives, mothers and sisters had during the day. As the days went by, men demanded more and more attention: a cup of tea, freshly cooked meals. And they dirtied more dishes, created more confusion. The schools were closed, so the children also started to have their requests and to create further confusion. Pakistani women found themselves sucked into a daily 24-hour work cycle, seven days a week, in an attempt to satiate appetites and maintain harmony.

Around the world, women are the first victims of the covid-19 pandemic, regardless of whether they have fallen ill or not. Data from various countries demonstrate this. In China, research has revealed a 300 percent increase in violence against women. In Lebanon the increase was 45 per cent, in India 21 per cent. In the UK, on ​​the other hand, violence has doubled compared to the average of the last ten years. And the figures are also similar for Germany and Tunisia.

These percentages come from studies undergone peer review (peer review) and published in scientific journals, but the situation is likely to be worse. In Pakistan, those who work in the social sector and in the structures that assist victims of violence speak of an exponential increase.

In much of the country, women have to ask for permission from men to leave the house. Getting a respite from violence has now become impossible. Since there are no longer visits and family gatherings, which once served to avoid at least some of the mistreatment, violent men have carte blanche.

The situation of female workers is equally difficult. Those who work from home have to look after the children at the same time. Others, like the 250,000 Americans laid off in January 2021, have lost their source of income. The pandemic has put light years away between boys and girls in terms of career advancement.

In the post-pandemic world, women will be even more disadvantaged than before. Pakistanis who have been fired or have had to leave their jobs may not be able to return to work when the pandemic is over. Salary plays a fundamental role in family balance. Not receiving one reduces women’s ability to protect their rights. This removal of women from work is likely to have an effect on society as a whole: the cultural habits that want them at home will strengthen.

Nobody talks about these things in Pakistan. On March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, a worker told a TV program how the pandemic was actually a blessing, because it allowed families to spend more time together. The government has also spread such nonsense, while efforts to collect statistics on the number of women victims of violence have been very few. No additional resources were given to the reception facilities. On the contrary, the ridiculous thesis that families live together without any conflict has been propagated.

Pakistan must wake up. The women of the country cannot be asked to take care of all the housework, the care of the children, their study and even the work from home. Today there is a vaccine for covid-19 but there is not one for a society and a world that have put the full load of a terrible event on women.

Men must answer for the cruelty and selfishness they have shown themselves capable of in recent years and for the fact that they have never questioned themselves. Absolute power corrupts. The many Pakistanis who stay there to live their lives, heedless of the burden they place on their women and the violence they inflict on them, testify to this very well.

(Translation by Federico Ferrone)