Between
February and March 2020, as well as the media incessantly reminding
us of the necessity to isolate and lockdown to fight Covid-19, new
hashtags were invented to build awareness and to push the collective
to unite and fight the invisible, deadly enemy.
With an
unprecedented speed hashtags such as #stayhome and #staysafe took
over Instagram. Within just that 1 year, there have been tens of
millions of posts using these hashtags.
These numbers contrast
with those for hashtags such as #stopviolenceagainstwomenandgirls,
#stopvawg, #stopdomesticviolence and #stopdomesticabuse which have
now been circulating for almost as long as Instagram; posts using
these hashtags to date generally number in the few thousands.
But
violence against women and girls was a pandemic long before the
outbreak of Covid-19: 1 in 3 women worldwide has experienced physical
or sexual violence inflicted by an intimate partner at some point in
their lifetime.
In the 12 months prior to the Covid-19 emergency,
it was estimated that globally 243 million women and girls aged 15-49
years, have been subjected to sexual or physical violence by a
current or former intimate partner: this is 462,320 women per
minute.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, data and reports show that
all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic
violence, have increased: worldwide, there has been an increase (from
40% all the way up to a staggering 400%) in calls to helplines and
hotlines supporting victims of violence against women and girls. For this reason in
May 2020, the UN called for urgent action to fight this 'shadow
pandemic', which has existed for so much longer than Covid-19.
And
how much quicker could this problem be tackled if all countries
agreed to work together to address the issue of violence against
women and girls?
In a few months the world has managed to work
together to fight Covid-19 the 'invisible' common enemy.
Similarly
in 2002 the western world recognised another common invisible enemy:
In just 9 months subsequent to the the United States terrorist
attacks of September 11th 2001, a new landmark framework decision
obliged all the European States to align their national legislations
to fight and prevent the problem of terrorism.
In both situations
the position of the media has been fundamental in shaping the
collective mind, thus paving the way to new drastic laws that totally
changed our approach to life. The newspapers, TV, radio and internet
pushed the emergency in unison for months on a daily, and some time
hourly, basis.
How many months might it take to change the
approach to this problem and to finally 'force' the sort of
collective laws that have not been introduced for 'cultural'
conflicts?
The coverage that the mainstream media gives to
specific topics are an indicator by which progress towards a shifting
of social and cultural norms can be measured.
To date the media
still rarely present violence against women as a systemic societal
issue, but more as an individual situation covered just at the moment
of the sensationalised event. Except for 1 day of the year, the 25th
of November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women, when they do all report on the problem.
