MONGOLIA: GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES DURING COVID-19

MONGOLIA: GIRLS AND YOUNG
WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES
DURING COVID-19
SARANZAYA GERELT-OD - GLOBAL RESILIENCE
FUND PANELIST, MONGOLIA

Girls and Young Women’s                              in reported domestic violence
Experiences from Inner Asia,                         compared with the same period in
Central Asia, and particularly                       2019. Similarly, in Kazakhstan (18%t),
Mongolia during COVID-19                             Georgia (19%) and Turkey (15%),
                                                     where considerable proportions of
COVID-19 exacerbated existing                        the population have felt or heard
systems rooted with great inequality                 of increases in domestic violence
in Inner Asia, including part of Central             since the pandemic’s spread (UNDP,
Asia. Many countries in Inner Asia have              2020). Added to this, reproductive
experienced a long post-transition                   health services, including abortion,
of democracy and free-market                         unwanted pregnancy, caring
economy system since the Soviet                      responsibility with household
Union collapsed in 1990. Since the                   chores and feminist movements
global pandemic hit in early 2020,                   and activism were impacted by the
most countries in this region had                    COVID-19 outbreak (Human Rights
no choice but to close the borders                   Watch, 2021).
between March - June due to the
vulnerability of the healthcare system.              Mongolia took strict measures in
                                                     response to COVID-19, with the
S u b s e q u e n t l y , s c h o o l s , l o ca l   closure of borders, schools and public
businesses, and public gatherings                    gatherings from January 2020. While
have been shut (UN Women, 2020).                     local transmissions have not been
Gender-based violence, particularly                  confirmed since October 2020, the
trafficking in person and domestic                   Mongolian economy fell drastically
violence increased sharply when                      due to its geopolitical vulnerability
everyone was expected to be at home.                 neighbouring Russia and China,
The situation is particularly alarming               and being somewhere-in-between
in Kyrgyzstan with a 65% increase                    Central Asia and East Asia.

Mongolia’s economy heavily relies on    NGO who first identified and reported
China’s import products and many        human rights violation on sex
small businesses led by women shut      trafficking cases in Malaysia through
down due to the shortage of raw         social media. They responded with
material after the borders’ closure.    immediate action, in cooperation
Caring responsibility, children’s       with Malaysian NGOs, and stressed
education and remote working have       the situations to both governments
added more pressure on women’s          and donor organisations to bring 13
shoulders in Mongolia. Meanwhile,       sex workers back to Mongolia during
domestic violence, specifically         the lockdown.
intimate partner violence was a
sharp increase of 42% compared to       The local grass-roots organisations’
2019 during the first quarter of 2020   workload in addressing domestic
(UNFPA Mongolia, 2020). Domestic        violence and psycho-social services
violence shelter services suddenly      has doubled. One of those is
increased by 62% with the rising        Beautiful Hearts Against Sexual
number of hotline calls and from the    Violence NGO (Beautiful Hearts) that
second and third quarter of 2020,       focuses on child sexual abuse and
child incidents, child neglection,      young survivors of domestic violence
child sexual abuse, and women’s         and sexual violence through core
mental health reported significant      activities with social media, artivism,
increases (UNFPA Mongolia, 2020         and trauma-informed psychosocial
and Beautiful Hearts NGO). Another      services. stablished in 2012, it has a
issue was that Mongolian sex workers    vision of eliminating gender-based
were stranded abroad during the         violence and promoting the practice
lockdown. Most of them could not        of feminist leadership in local settings.
return home and were neglected by       In these complex times, a flexible and
structural violence from Mongolian      rapid fund is crucial to address the
and Malaysian government decisions      current situation, and some of the
associated with COVID-19 and were       donor organisations’ policies need
brutally abused in police violence      to change their existing systems on
(Eagle news, 2020; G. Prasakh and       granting systems based on the local
Loheswar, 2020; Palansamy, 2020).       context. n
Enormous efforts were made by the
Mongolian Gender Equality Center

INTERVIEW 1:                               shifting into democracy from the
Onontuul, human rights activist and        socialist system that has intensified
project manager for Strong Girls           the great inequality in the region.
Strong Nation at Beautiful Hearts.         Since the pandemic appeared
                                           globally, feminist movements have,
 “We witnessed how COVID-19 and            effectively, interrupted or stopped
related policies and rules worsen          their advocacyat all levels. For
domestic violence in Mongolia.             example, in Mongolia and Buryat
Previously, we received an urgent          community in Russia, they could not
message from a survivor once a week        organise their march to end gender
through our social media page. After       discrimination and gender violence
the lockdown started, messages             during International Women’s Day.
increased sharply to almost every
day from young women and girls.            INTERVIEW 2:
Psycho-social counselling services         Maria, Coordinator of I-Freedom
now banned in-person, we are               Initiative in Buryat Republic and
providing hotline and online services      Oyundari, General Coordinator at
to clients. Sometimes we have to           Beautiful Hearts in Mongolia.
reach out to the girls and boys who
are at the most risk to child sexual       “Collaborating with local NGOs
abuse at home in peri-urban areas          across the countries in the region is
during pandemic despite the strict         critical to building transnational and
lockdown. Some of the kids do not          transformative feminist movements
have cell phones or TV at home to          in this region. Initially, Beautiful Hearts
get information from us. Besides,          NGO from Mongolia and I-Freedom
most of the planned activities under       NGO from the Buryat Republic from
donor organisations were postponed         Russia had planned to organise a
as well, thus, we struggled to get         feminist conference in the context
salaries. In this region, transformative   of nomadic culture. Regrettably, it
feminist movements have been               was all postponed due to the global
hampered by neoliberal feminist            pandemic outbreak. It was very sad.
approaches since the collapse of           If the pandemic continues until 2022,
the Soviet Union regime. Western           we will have to recreate our strategy
feminist discourses arrived through        based on online activism.” Overall,
development intervention but are           COVID-19 has presented many
shifting from nomadic culture to           challenges in existing systems while
urbanisation, and at the same time,        feminist and local NGOs’ workload

has doubled in the area of gender-              Longing for the time he changes,
based violence. At an individual level,         Hoping he will realise and tolerate
care responsibility and mental health           the beating,
issues rest on women’s shoulders,               Hoping he will stop for the sweet
w h i l e co l l e c t i ve m ove m e n t s ,   child.
interrupted entirely by government
measures, are associated with                   The expected change never came,
pandemic. Local grassroots groups               Only it was me that prayed.
are positive and resistant to change            The expected change never came,
this new normality and they adopt               Only it was me that could change.
to fix gender inequality rather than
waiting for the pandemic to end.                No suffering I felt physically must
                                                continue psychologically,
EXPECTED CHANGE                                 And no days with full of tears must
THAT NEVER CAME                                 remain in my head,
                                                As the baby with my milk is now
Not the twentieth year of life,                 inside me,
Not the gorgeous wedding ring,                  I am a mother with courage, who
but two red lines on the pregnancy              no longer makes a mistake.
test,
It is the time that life starts to grow         Do not expect that he will change
inside,                                         Expect you, who has the power to
that marks the beginning of a                   change all
woman’s life                                    Leave the past behind
                                                Look at the future optimistically
When that unknown perfume
came near,                                      Because we are not victims
When he turned to the unknown,                  Because we are the survivors
And when he starts beating his
pregnant wife,                                  A poem by a domestic violence
It is the time that I erase from                survivor for One Billion Rising –
memory,                                         Women’s March on Mongolia.
The five years we spent together.

REFERENCES
•   Eagle news (2020) ‘As of the first nine months of 2020, Mongolian
    Gender Equality Center NGO working to bring in 51 victims of human
    trafficking abroad’. https://www.facebook.com/eaglenewssocial/
    videos/810483036422226
•   G. Prasakh and Loheswar, R. (2020) Police inspector arrested for
    alleged rape of two Mongolian women after they were stopped at
    MCO roadblock in PJ, malaymail.com. Available at: https://www.
    malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/04/12/police-inspector-arrested-
    for-alleged-rape-of-two-mongolian-women-after-the/1855933
•   Human Rights Watch (2021) World Report 2021: events of 2020.
•   Palansamy, Y. (2020) NGOs urge police to free Mongolian women who
    reported rape, malaymail.com. Available at: https://www.malaymail.
    com/news/malaysia/2020/04/15/ngos-urge-police-to-free-mongolian-
    women-who-reported-rape/1856995
•   UN Women (2020) The Impact of COVID-19 on Women’s and Men’s
    Lives and Livelihoods in Europe and Central Asia: Preliminary Results
    from a Rapid Gender Assessment. Available at: https://data.unwomen.
    org/publications/impact-covid-19-womens-and-mens-lives-and-
    livelihoods-europe-and-central-asia
•   UNDP (2020) COVID-19 and Central Asia : impacts and key policy
    considerations for recovery.
•   UNFPA Mongolia (2020) Cluster Report on COVID-19 and gender-
    based violence. https://www.unfpa.org/news/mongolian-women-get-
    help-escape-violence-even-amid-pandemic