The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre is recording cases of extreme violence against women as people grapple with the impact of the pandemic.

Within the first three weeks of the initial lockdown, the FWCC received 300 calls, with 70 percent related to gender-based violence.

Coordinator, Shamima Ali says they are shocked by the severity of the attacks.

“Chasing your woman on a horseback with a whip and things like that – really extreme kind. Then we have a lot of emotional violence, verbal abuse and so on. We are seeing cohesive control, whereby he is timing her on how long she will take to do a certain task and things like that. We also have cases of women being chased out of the house – several cases like that. Marital rape is also increasing.”

Ali says this time around the NGO was prepared and was able to jump into action to try and help victims.

“We were much faster than what we were last year because last year we were in the planning stage. So all the advertisements have gone out. You’ll see them on social media, on regular media and so on.”

While reports have emerged from around the country the majority of cases are in Nadi, Lautoka, Suva and Nausori containment zones.