This paper gives a brief background on violence against women since "the Black Wednesday" in 2005 with a focus on the past few months amid COVID-19 pandemic from both state and non-state actors. The paper aims at showing how the pandemic led to increased targeting of women human rights defenders and provided an opportunity for the state to further shut down the public sphere.

Also, the paper enlists some recommendations and actions the state should adopt in order to eradicate violence and sexual violence against women and to ensure better and more effective COVID-19 response for women.