The violence of illness: Palestinian and Syrian refugee women in Lebanon face the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.

In this paper, I will argue that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Lebanon has exacerbated violence against Palestinian and Syrian refugee women residing in camps. Violence occurs as a result, first, of being forced to live outside one’s country, often cut off from family and community support. Second, violence derives from harsh and uncomfortable living conditions and a perceived unwelcoming environment created by the Lebanese authorities. A third contributor is a gender-based violence and high incidences of physical, verbal and psychological violence within the home. Women suffer anxiety caused by inadequate or non-existent schooling for their children, a lack of employment opportunities and the difficulties of accessing health care. All these factors have been significantly exacerbated by the arrival of the COVID-19 crisis in the community. One of the unanticipated side effects of the pandemic in 2020 was a dramatic increase in intimate-partner violence. The United Nations Population Fund reported that three months of quarantine was likely to lead to a 20 percent rise in IPV throughout the world. In total, the report predicted ‘at least 15 million additional cases of IPV will occur as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns’ (Stanley 2020). Domestic violence was reported as increasing in the Middle East and North Africa. According to Rola Dashti, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), domestic violence has increased in the Arab region ‘with lockdowns, enforced coexistence due to quarantine, economic stress, perceived and real food insecurity, and fears about exposure to the virus’. In addition, women survivors of violence ‘will face increased difficulties in accessing help during the pandemic’ (Reliefweb 2020). According to the OECD, the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in the MENA region ‘risks further exacerbating existing fragilities and inequalities, including greater gender inequality’ (2020). These problems are intensely compounded in situations of cramped living conditions and poor health care, such as refugee camps. In the paper, building on fieldwork conducted with Palestinian and Syrian refugee women in Lebanon around issues of violence against women, I will carefully analyze both the manifestations of the problem and the various coping mechanisms and forms of agency that women adopt.