• Emergency lockdown measures can deepen pre-existing restrictions on women’s freedom, especially on that of young women. In conservative societies and cultures, gender norms and expectations limit women’s personal freedoms and access to public spaces during non-emergency situations. Young women and adolescent girls, in particular, face restrictions on their mobility, for instance, not being permitted to travel outside the home if they are not accompanied by a male relative or only for limited purposes (e.g., shopping, education or work).123 Emergency stay-at-home measures have coincided with the closure of safe spaces for women and girls (e.g., schools) and led to closer oversight by male heads of households. It has been reported that women have been criticized for leaving home (even when restrictions have been eased) and encouraged to focus on domestic responsibilities, justified by orders to socially isolate.124 Similar patterns of families imposing more restrictions on adolescent girls’ movement at the same time as increasing their domestic workloads have been observed during and after previous crises.125 The imposition of lockdown measures increases restrictions on the mobility of young women, and there is a risk that such patterns may become entrenched in families even after emergency measures are eased. • When the police or military are in charge of enforcing physical and social distancing, and curfews in particular, the increased presence of security personnel heightens the vulnerability of women and girls. During armed conflict and in previous emergency situations, security forces have perpetrated gender-based violence (this was the case during the Ebola outbreak, during which it was reported that some security personnel raped and sexually assaulted women in areas under quarantine126) or sexually exploited women in return for providing access to goods or services (this may happen at checkpoints or during quarantine conditions). Among the OSCE participating States, the military enforced a strict 40-hour curfew in Albania. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Serbia enacted night curfews. North Macedonia reinstated a curfew in early June 2020 in response to new infections. • Strict self-isolation and “shielding” requirements that severely limit the movement of people over the age of 65 have had a discriminatory impact on women, who make up a larger portion of the elderly population and are more likely not to have other people who can assist them. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates ashx?IDMF=a1f51f03-fb60-4dab-b352-c2cb54bd0552>. 123 In Tajikistan, for instance, women in extended families rarely make independent decisions about visiting family members, and quite often the husband alone will decide. See: Asian Development Bank (ADB), Tajikistan Country Gender Assessment, (Manilla, ADB 2016), p. 38 (citing Tajikistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012), <https://www.adb. org/sites/default/files/institutional-document/185615/tajikistan-cga.pdf>. 124 Interview with expert in Tajikistan, conducted 21 May 2020. 125 See e.g.: Department for International Development (DFID), “Violence against Women and Girls in Humanitarian Emergencies – CHASE Briefing Paper”, October 2013, p. 6, <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/271932/VAWG-humanitarian-emergencies.pdf>. 126 Silbert, C., “How to Enforce COVID-19 Emergency Measures Without Putting Women at Risk”, The Diplomat website, 30 April 2020, <https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/ how-to-enforce-covid-19-emergency-measures-without-putting-women-at-risk/>. 37