The report was written to coincide with South Africa's 'Sixteen days on gender activism'. It shows that a significant proportion of the women who have fled Zimbabwe for South Africa have experienced state torture.

Zimbabwe's ongoing crisis has resulted in a dramatic increase in state violence. More than 15,000 cases of organized torture and violence have been documented in Zimbabwe since 2001, according to the Human Rights Forum. There are many more cases of torture that have not been registered, according to Zimbabwean health specialists.

Among the Zimbabweans who have fled their homes for South Africa, 40% are woman, according to a small sample surveyed in Gauteng Province. Thirty percent complain they suffered political violence and 44% report having been denied access to food because of their support for the opposition, according to a survey carried out by ZTVP.

The Zimbabwe Torture Victims/Survivors Project (ZTVP) offers medical assistance, counseling and limited social assistance for Zimbabwean survivors of torture who are living in South Africa. The project has been operating in Johannesburg, based at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, since February, 2005.

Women make up 32% of all torture survivors seen by the project. More than 84% of the women have arrived in South Africa since 2004. They are young, with an average age of 29, and mostly single. More than half (63%) had some form of employment in Zimbabwe. Most (67%) report that they were politically active in some way, with 43% reporting membership in the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Most (70%) came from Zimbabwe's urban areas and most came from Matabeleland in southwestern Zimbabwe.

Significantly, 15% reported that they had been subjected to rape, which is much higher than recorded by earlier human rights reports. Beatings, sensory over-stimulation, burnings, falanga (beatings of the soles of the feet), electric shock were other forms of torture reported by the women. Nearly half the women reported multiple violations. They reported that the violence was inflicted by supporters of Zanu-PF (48%), war veterans (17%), police (10%), army (5%) and the Central Intelligence Organisation (5%).

The report features several harrowing first-person accounts of rape experienced by the women. The ZTVP also has a video about the problem of rape in Zimbabwe.

The review found that women who reported rape were also significantly more likely to report severe torture, particularly beatings. The women who reported rape were significantly more likely to be assessed as suffering psychological problems following the trauma.

The report highlights that only 36% of the Zimbabwean women torture survivors have received a Section 22 status, which is the first step of applying for refugee status. Only 2% had succeeded in getting refugee status.