At a time when the state is committed to fighting a global pandemic, a hidden pandemic continues to rot Egypt from the inside: domestic violence. The magnitude of the problem is far larger than what the government and political officials conceive. It demands more than just short-term responses or funding to emergency and support services, as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for, but a forward-looking strategy that aims to redefine the way states should look at the domestic sphere. Globally, there has been a surge in cases of domestic violence. In France, the police reported an increase of about 30 percent in domestic violence, and in Spain, the emergency number saw an 18 percent increase in just the first two weeks. Reasons for this have often been linked the ‘stay at home’ measures that have been imposed and the added stress that comes from loss of jobs or income. However, even before the pandemic, domestic violence has been every country’s shadow terrorism. It is an issue that is rooted more deeply in how societies are structured along gender and power lines and how the household structure is perceived. Women’s role…
