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Abstract
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Domestic violence and extramarital affairs at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 was caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which originated from a Wuhan fish market and then quickly spread around the world (1, 2). One of the major impacts of COVID-19, besides health and financial situations, is that family cohesion is shaken, which can be determined by the increased rate of divorce rate, extramarital affairs, and domestic violence due to prolonged duration of lockdown against preventing COVID-19 transmission (3). Researchers in a latest study demonstrated that housewives faced several problems during the quarantine phase such as lifestyle imbalance, life with fear and anxiety, personal health problems, Internet addiction, and low mental health (4–6). Based on Iran's registar office for birth, death, marriage, and divorce datasheet from 2012 to date, the statistics show a rising trend in divorce incidents and a decline in the marriage rate despite the 2 years of corrections (7). Domestic violence against women in the Middle East is nothing new; needless to say, the situation in Iran is far better than a few neighboring countries and the Persian Gulf countries and North Africa, where 30–64% (country-wise) of male participants hinted to have caused domestic violence and carried out sexual harassment (8). In the year 2020, Iraq and Iran have been ranked as the world's angriest countries (9) while the latest local survey brings to the spotlight that 46% of women in Iranian families experienced domestic violence, which can be divided into sexual and physical abuse, intimidation, isolation, and economic abuse, by men using male privileges including honor killing, reportedly with more than 8,000 registered cases from 2010 to 2014 (10) ...
Language: en |