The COVID-19 pandemic, Women and Mental Health in Zimbabwe: A Gender-Based Violence perspective

Abstract

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that engulfed the world from 2019 to date has not only exposed the failure by national governments to decisively deal with the pandemic, it has also posed serious questions about the intersections of COVID-19, women and mental health issues in Africa. It appears as if previous epidemics such as HIV and AIDS and Ebola, just to mention a few, have not fully equipped people on how to deal with emergencies such as the COVID-19 crisis. This article is an attempt to unravel the tumultuous terrain that characterise the impact of COVID-19 on women’s mental health in Zimbabwe. It draws from lessons learnt through the COVID-19 experiences across all the sectors of human life. Adopting a narrative methodological approach, the study explored the impact of COVID-19 on people’s (particularly women’s) mental health. Using the biopsychosocial model of mental health as the prism through which issues at hand are dissected, the article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic is taking advantage of the faulty lines that exist on issues about women, gender and religion to expose women to major mental health challenges. The study also found out that men, too, were victims of GBV as the ‘stay-at-home’ decree emasculated them of their ‘man ego’ normally expressed by providing for the family.