A review of intimate partner sexual violence in COVID-19 pandemic

Background: The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and quarantine due to this is greatly challenging for families, especially women. Partner sexual violence against women can endanger the physical and psychological health of women, especially their reproductive health, family and community health. Objective(s): The objective of this study was to review the effect of partner sexual violence against women during the COVID19 pandemic. Material(s) and Method(s): The present study was a narrative review in which researchers conducted computer searches on Google Scholar, PubMed, magiran, SID, Science Direct, and ProQuest databases using key words of COVID-19, partner sexual violence, domestic violence and women related to the subject of the study from 2019 to now. Researchers have read the full text of the article and related reports and finally presented it in the form of a summary of the article. Result(s): The findings of the present study have led to the classification of content into three general categories. The first category was the impact of COVID-19 pandemic violence on women's mental health including: anxiety, major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, job loss and financial insecurity, social isolation, lack of support, harm from threatening behavior and speech, and feelings of humiliation. The second category was the impact of COVID-19 pandemic violence on physical health including: beatings, bruising, bleeding, tooth damage, rupture of the eardrum and increased substance abuse. Finally, the third category of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic violence was sexual health including: unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, unsafe sex, sexually transmitted diseases, and neglect of female sexual needs. Conclusion(s): Due to the increasing incidence of violence in the corona pandemic, the urgent need to develop and implement treatment options with regard to all aspects of mental, physical and sexual in women is of particular importance. The findings of this study can be available for experts to design therapeutic interventions against violence.