Forbidden Love, Gender, and Domestic Violence: Women College Students' Experience during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: There are many informal rules regarding women's premarital relationships in Turkey and Islamic cultures in general. It is an unspoken rule that Turkish families disapprove of their daughters' dating. We explored women's experiences hiding their romantic relationships from their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included nine Turkish women college students aged 19–26 years. The participants who returned home after transitioning to distance education experienced more gender-based stress. They feared domestic violence and forced marriage. Some of them experienced various forms of domestic violence. Negative consequences of hiding included cognitive dissonance due to lying to their families, cognitive load, hiding dating violence, and not getting social support from their families. In addition, lying could lead to double living and creating two separate selves. The results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey has made gender inequalities within families more visible.