It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. So many of us across the world have faced lockdowns,

sometimes numerous ones, in response to the pandemic. But what if staying in our homes made us less safe,

not from a virus, but from violence in our own houses. At TED Women 2020, Women's Health

Specialist, Kemi De Silva-Ebru, shines a light on a shadow pandemic. The girls and women

stuck at home with dangerous partners who need our help. We all know about the pandemic that

has come to define 2020.

Understandably, COVID-19 has dominated the world's agenda,

and mandatory lockdowns were introduced in many countries to help control the spread of the virus.

For many of us, the lockdown was inconvenient.

We couldn't go to our normal places of business. We couldn't visit family or friends, and we couldn't socialize publicly. But for some people, though the freedom to

get out of the house was not just a matter of convenience, but of physical safety and even life

for death.

Based on my work, I see the great majority of those vulnerable people are women.

And this resonates with me, especially today, as I give my talk from the safety of my home.

As a practicing obstetrician and gynecologists, I am also aware of the prevalence of gender-based violence in communities across Nigeria. And this is why I founded the Women at Risk

International Foundation, Warrif, in 2016, in response to this. Global estimates published by the WHO indicate that one in three women worldwide

have experienced an act of violence. And this was before the lockdown. In March, an increase in the

number of cases of violence against women was becoming apparent across the world, amounting to a shadow

pandemic that we are now faced with globally. In France, for example, there was a 30% increase

in the number of cases of domestic violence. And in Argentina, emergency calls from domestic violence

cases increased by 25%. In the first two weeks of the

lockdown in Lagos State, our emergency phone lines rang non-stop, and we recorded a 64% increase

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