When thinking of the impact COVID-19 has left, often the first thoughts to come to mind are lockdowns, quarantining, and having to wear masks. But what about the trickling effects it has left on Asian women at home?
As a Korean person myself and having friends from several different parts of Asia, I know very well of the abuse that often occurs in Asian homes. A horrid result of years of colonialism and imperialism, abuse has almost become normalized in the majority of Asian homes. And nowadays rather than being appalled and concerned, people often shrug at the sight or sound of abuse and give the justification of: “it happened to me and I turned out just fine”. Now with the pandemic understandably forcing people to stay home, domestic abuse has only surged for Asian women.
When the lockdowns first began, multiple Asian American domestic violence organizations suddenly stopped receiving contact from clients who before had frequently kept in touch. This is because clients with abusive partners have been stuck with them at home, with no safe opportunity to comfortably contact the organizations. Many clients even reached out just to tell the organizations to stop contacting them because it was too dangerous for them. And seeing as their partners are always around and have begun to take away their phones, cars, and forms of money, the situation started to get more drastic.
As soon as the mandated lockdowns began to ease up, the calls started back up again as each caller reported increased rates of abuse. Organizations report that they think the stress from the pandemic has caused abusers to resort to more extreme acts of violence. And now as professionals say that COVID-19 will be much worse in the winter and as we already see Europe reinforcing mandatory lockdowns, this creates a serious need for the women to leave their situations and much less time to do so.
Many Asian women were already hesitant to leave their homes due to the stigma of leaving their partner/marriage and domestic abuse, especially with the cultural implications causing Asian women to often be hyper-aware of the judgement from their community. Along with that, there is also the threat of racism due the rise in anti-Asian racism due to the Coronavirus and threats of deportation depending on where they reside and their status. It is typical of abusers to use immigration status as a form of control over their partners, and with the rate at which police are known for not being helpful in domestic abuse cases, here and in other countries, they are already not seen as an option. Now with the pandemic, financial stability is even more so a concern for these women and now they must worry about their children or themselves catching the virus.
People often yearn for the end of this virus just to be able to freely go out again, but we must keep in mind how this virus has impacted people and situations in various ways. The government must be vigilant in ways that other zero-case countries have in order to truly enforce rules onto people and regulate the spread of this virus. But for now I urge everyone to be responsible not only for yourself but for your communities, and to think of other ways in which the pandemic could have exacerbated various situations.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522. Culturally-specific resources can also be found at apigbv.force.com.
Unruly Bodies 
First of all, thank you for bringing attention to such a crucial, yet, severely overlooked aspect of this pandemic and providing resources for help as well. When we (as in the general public) talk about wanting stay-at-home orders and mandatory lockdowns lifted, we tend to frame them as these oppressive restrictions that prevent us from doing Oh So Crucial things like going to the bar to watch the game or hosting shitty little holiday parties. Yeah it sucks that the simple good things in life and our sense of normalcy in general has been robbed from us due to COVID I won’t deny that, but if we act right then at least we can get them back in the future. Unfortunately, victims of domestic violence have already had positive aspects of their lives stripped away from them pre-COVID and things have only gotten worse for them now, yet, they have the smallest voices in conversations about the negative aspects of stay-at-home orders and mandatory lockdowns even though they have the most right to be anxious about such. I also like how you illustrated the range of culturally-specific conditions that shape how Asian women are particularly affected by domestic violence; this proves that not only do we need to expand our resources for domestic violence victims overall, but we also need to diversify them in ways that can cater to the needs of all types of victims – a one-size-fits-all bandage will simply not do.
Thank you for this. As someone who recently has become more aware of the underlying effects of the pandemic and lockdowns, this is one that I hadn’t thought of our seen anywhere.
Hearing a different perspective to the lifting of lockdown orders, one that brings saving someone’s life to the other side of the argument, is eye opening. I can’t help but wonder how people in abusive relationships during a pandemic would even begin going about leaving their current situations. From personal experiences, many victims are forced to cut themselves off from family and rebuilding that relationship to move-in with them or receive help, in a time where so many resources are already stretched thin, is almost impossible. With covid, I know that getting into shelters or organized housing has become extremely difficult. I’m thankful for the organizations that dedicate themselves to these situations and am definitely going to make myself more aware of how to support them as we re-enter difficult times.