No
hiding place: Politically motivated rape of women in
Zimbabwe
Research
and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and Zimbabwe Association of
Doctors for
Human Rights (ZADHR)
December
09, 2010
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Executive
Summary
Politically
motivated sexual violence against women in Zimbabwe takes
many forms.
These include extreme violence, gang rape and insertion of
objects
(bottles and sticks) into the women's genitalia. This
report is
the first coming out of Zimbabwe focusing particularly on
politically
motivated rape; the aim of the study was to provide a
valid and
reliable description of cases of politically motivated
rape. Since
this was a clinical rather than an epidemiological study,
there
was no attempt to determine either the prevalence of
political rape
or to establish how representative the sample was.
The
sample was chosen
from women members of a voluntary network set up to
provide support
for female victims of politically motivated rape. A total
of 34
women were interviewed, but 7 were excluded from the study
as they
could not be traced on follow-up for medical examinations
and finalizing
and signing affidavits. Hence, the data is drawn from a
final sample
of 27 women.
Rapes
were reported as
occurring in 2001 [1], 2002 [1], 2003 [1], and 2008 [24].
Hence,
most rapes [89%] occurred in 2008, but, of course, there
is no suggestion
that rape was actually more common in 2008 than in any
other year.
There
have been
many reports about the use of “bases” as places where
violations take place, but, for this sample, the rape was
just as
likely to have taken place at or near the victim's home
[15] as
at a base [12].
Most
[21] were beaten
prior to rape, some quite severely.
Over
three-quarters [21]
were victims of multiple rape, with an average of three
rapists
per incident. One woman reported a total of 13
perpetrators, and
14 women reported 3 or more perpetrators to their rape.
One woman
reported 3 separate rape incidences in June 2008 by a
total of 13
perpetrators.
A
distressingly high
number of the rapes [11] took place in public, at or near
the victim's
home, and witnessed by the victim's family and children.
Ten
women reported that
their estimate of the number of perpetrators was only
certain for
a specific number, and that there could have been more
than the
number they specified as they had fallen unconscious, or
had lost
count as they seemed to be so many. They could be certain,
however,
of at least the number of perpetrators that they
specified.
Most
[23] did
not report the rape to the authorities at all.Only 4
reported the
rape.
Most
of the women did
not receive appropriate care for the trauma that they had
experienced.
Only one of the women reported having received therapeutic
care
for psychological consequences of the violence following
the sexual
assault. This is in contrast to the high proportion of
study participants
displaying symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) and
the presence of some with symptoms suggesting psychotic
depression.
Women
in the study exhibited
high levels of sleeplessness, nightmares, flashbacks, and
hopelessness.
A third of the women reported these symptoms, which are
commonly
associated with experiences of trauma. For some,
flashbacks are
triggered by large gatherings, particularly where
political slogans
were being chanted while others had recurring nightmares
during
which they relived the rapes. Traumatic memories may
continue for
extended periods of time.
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and Advocacy Unit fact
sheet
Visit
the ZADHR
fact
sheet
http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/women/101209rau.asp?sector=WOMEN
