Domestic and Social Violence against Women during the Egyptian Uprising

Abstract

This study discusses how social and domestic violence against women increased during the period of political violence represented by the Egyptian Uprising of the 25th of January 2011. In this paper, the term political violence had been defined as any use of force practiced by governmental or anti-governmental groups to achieve political goals. Many scholars use the terms political violence and political instability interchangeably while the latter refers to a situation when a government had been toppled which was found to be strongly affiliated with political violence. Political violence includes uprisings and political transition of authority. Social violence is associated with sexual harassment, social norms and gender roles. Domestic violence refers to any physical harm among family members against women and domestic practices like early marriage and female circumcision. The article discusses first how the three types of violence interact and affect one another. The study in turn researches the increase of domestic violence rate against women in reaction to the political conflict resulting from the Egyptian Uprising of January 25th, 2011 through conducting interviews with abused women to investigate how the Egyptian Uprising had affected them socially and domestically. The study concludes that political violence had a direct impact on social and domestic violence against women.