Women’s Rights and the Feminists’ “Dirty Plans”: Media Discourses During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Russia

Abstract

In this brief, the authors examine Russian media discourses on domestic violence during the COVID-19 global pandemic. With the introduction of restrictive measures against the virus, such as physical distancing measures, cordoning off cities, a 2-week travel quarantine, and others, media reports started to emphasize growing numbers of domestic violence cases and the insufficiency of measures to help the victims. Russian media frequently linked the incidents of violence under lockdown to the absence of adequate legislative measures. Importantly, Russian media reports referenced a proposed draft law on domestic violence that had been actively debated throughout the second half of 2019 but was not adopted. Traditionalist groups, who believed the special law was not necessary, countered media reports insisting that family remained the safest place for people under the pandemic. Drawing on a constructivist paradigm and using critical discourse analysis and content analysis, this article examines media representations of domestic violence during the COVID-19 health pandemic, as well as media narratives over the perception of the state faced with the two insurmountable tasks: to contain the epidemic and protect the most vulnerable members of the society. We argue that despite the increasing influence of traditionalist ideas in Russian foreign and domestic policy-making, the COVID-19 pandemic can provide human rights activists and social workers with a renewed opportunity to frame the necessity of a special domestic violence law as means to protect the interests of the most vulnerable members of the society during crisis situations.

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