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8TH - 14TH JUNE 2021 - EDITION 892
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Gender violence on the rise Experts have warned of an increase in gender violence in the Alicante province due to, they claim, a relaxation of covid measures. This so called shadow pandemic has claimed the lives of 16 women so far in 2021, and a total of 1094 since 2003 when such data was first recorded. The number of women killed at the
hands of their partner or family member increased in the months of April and May and experts in psychology and law claim that there is a direct link between the increase in gender violence and the relaxation of safety measures surrounding the pandemic. These experts claim that as society returns to normal, and as
women are gradually returning to a life outside the home, the aggressors stop being able to control the victim so easily and are trying to dominate them once more. During the first quarter of 2021, the Alicante province alone registered, 300 calls to 016, the emergency number for violence against women. The figures, according to data from the Government Delegation against Gender Violence, show an increase of 30% compared to the same quarter of 2019, where 200 calls were logged. Lawyer Lola Cárdenas said, “That there is a greater number of consultations to 016 is in some way a cause for celebration, since it is very important that women are looking for a way to solve their situation.” Cárdenas also revealed that inquiries about divorces and separations are increasing. “Many are realizing their situation, their particular hell experienced during a pandemic year,
and they want to get out of there and live again,” she said. The problem, says the lawyer, is not in the law but in a lack of investment in justice which causes weakened means to bring aggressors to book, and so the system fails. Cárdenas says that to improve the situation, “a greater involvement of doctors, psychologists, health workers, public employees must be carried out in order to detect a case of abuse in time.” The return to socializing, going out and meeting friends is making many women ‘open their eyes’ and leads some to realise that what they are experiencing at home is a situation of gender violence. Psychologist and gender violence expert Beatriz Durán says, “Currently, most of the abuse that happens in our country is at a
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psychological level and the mistake we make in society is to normalize it.” According to Durán, many women who begin psychotherapy are not even aware that they are in a toxic and abusive relationship. “The aggressor knows them, they have weakened them to such an extent that they make them believe that the mistake is theirs, the mistake of wanting to go out or the mistake of wanting to spend time with friends,” explains Beatriz. During the last number months, with the severe restrictions in place on everyone, “the aggressors did not feel a danger that the woman could leave them,” so in a way the situation was ‘on hold’. Both Durán and Cárdenas agree on the need for a change in society, greater training in gender violence and more awareness.