Abstract
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a salient public health issue that affects the gender symmetry between couples in wedlock during COVID-19. This shadow pandemic was further segregated into Life-Threatening and Trivial (LTT) IPV acts. Using In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), the women’s viewpoints on different aspects of IPV were investigated. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from women who had experienced abuse in their marital relationships, which was then analyzed using thematic analysis. The results showed that the major socio-cultural factors behind LTT IPV during COVID-19 were hegemonic and dominant masculinity of husbands, subjugated femininity of wives, and the parallel protective role of a husband in embarrassing the pandemic avoidance measures, hesitation in acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination, elevation in aggression due to socio-economic problems among husbands, information overflow and depression among men regarding COVID-19, and the role of traditional religious leaders in justifying the trivial IPV acts during the pandemic. In conclusion, the cultural web of the study context was based on the patriarchal, misogynistic, and gender-biased norms that normalized the husbands’ violent acts to implement COVID-19 avoidance measures against wives. Addressing the phenomenon through government interventions by using community-based awareness campaigns and constitutional protective laws for abused women can mitigate the intensity of this issue during COVID-19.