Across the world, many commentators have noted that the coronavirus is a major step backward for women.
However, in many Muslim countries, women already suffered from systematic oppression before the coronavirus plagued our planet. Therefore, the existence of the coronavirus pandemic made an already horrific situation even worse.
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As Israelis, we should be disturbed by this, for the very same social isolationism that has led to increased violence against women and gender apartheid in the Muslim world will only make radical Islamism a stronger force to reckon with in the future and this poses a strategic threat to Israel.
Already, the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine noted that they fear radical Islam will be stronger in the post-coronavirus world for people that are inwardly focused will spend more time online reading extremist content.
This increase in the dissemination of extremist ideology is embodied in the ever-increasing oppression of women in the Islamic world.
For example, the coronavirus pandemic has led to increased persecution of Iranian female political prisoners.
Jerusalem Post recently reported that Iranian female political prisoners are in a life-threatening situation as we speak.
However, Ahwazi female political prisoners in Iran face an even worse situation. In Ahwaz Prison, Iranian journalist Neda Amin noted that the Iranian regime recently killed 50 political prisoners who were trying to escape due to concerns that they would get the coronavirus while they were being detained. Amin noted that the Iranian regime has released criminals from its prisons due to these concerns but not female Ahwaz political prisoners.
They are not the only minorities in the Muslim world to suffer in the wake of the pandemic. Shipan Kumer Basu, the President of the World Hindu Struggle Committee, noted that recently, there has been unwavering violence against minority women in Bangladesh: "The persecution of Hindu women has not stopped even during the coronavirus pandemic. A Hindu woman was attacked inside of a temple in Bangladesh. Five members of a Hindu family in Bangladesh, which included some women, were flogged and stabbed by Muslim assailants. However, when they wanted to get treatment in the local hospital, they were sent home due to the coronavirus."
Similarly, the Kurds in Syria face a grave humanitarian disaster, which worsened due to the coronavirus.
Minority women in the Muslim world are not the only ones who are suffering. All women across the Islamic world are facing great hardships at this time. "According to Turkey's Federation of Women's Associations, during the self-isolation period required due to the coronavirus outbreak, physical violence against women has increased by 80 percent, psychological violence by 93 percent and there has been a 78 percent increase in the number of women in Turkey seeking to be accepted into women's shelters," Turkish journalist Uzay Bulut reported.
In the video that has gone viral on Twitter, Eman, a Jordanian woman, proclaimed that the abuse that she suffered within her family only got worse under the coronavirus lockdown: "Due to the coronavirus, from day one being in the quarantine, I have faced violence and blackmail from my family to give them money. I am being abused and terrorized. They were going to seriously injure me. I could have gotten killed. And I could not reach the police. The lines were busy because of corona."
In the end, she only was able to get relocated thanks to the help of a local NGO. A Palestinian source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, stressed that the story of Eman represents not only many Jordanian but also many Palestinian and other Arab women, for he noted that domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence has gone up during the coronavirus pandemic.
A society that does not respect women will also not respect Israel and minorities. For this reason, it is critical for Israel's national security that the international community not just speak out against this but take concrete actions in order to fight against gender apartheid and violence against women in the Muslim world. Otherwise, radical Islam will continue to gain the upper hand in the future.
