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Preying on the "weaker" sex: Political violence against women in Zimbabwe
Idasa (Institute for Democracy in Africa), the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU)
November 26, 2010

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Summary of Key Findings

Our previous report briefly detailed the violence experienced by women captured in a national survey of Zimbabwean women that consisted of data drawn from an initial sample of 2,200 women, which reduced to 2,158 after cleaning the data. The present report expands upon this previous report, Women, Politics and the Zimbabwe Crisis, covering the findings in greater detail relating to the experiences and witnessing of political violence from the same sample, but of only 2,149 women due to the inclusion of the data relating to witnessing which was not included in the first report. There is a companion report, When the Going gets Tough, the Men Get Going, detailing the responses of women to RAU's findings from the survey deriving from 10 focus discussion groups in the 10 Provinces of Zimbabwe, and involving 150 women who were not part of the original survey.

Personal Experience of Violence

• More than half stated that they had been victims of violence;
• The most commonly reported perpetrators were non-state agents [ZANU-PF supporters, war veterans, youth militia];
• The most common violations reported at the hands of both state officials and non-state agents were assault, threats, and torture in that order;
• 2% reported being personally raped;
• 44% reported that women are affected differently by political violence, giving reasons ranging from their weaker physical status to their inability to go into hiding due to their family responsibilities.

Witnessing of violence against family members

• 45% of the women surveyed indicated that they had witnessed violence against members of their families;
• 23% reported that they had witnessed violence against their family members between 2-5 times;
• 5% witnessed the violence 6-10 times, and 5% reported that this had happened more than 10 times to family members;
• The most frequent violations witnessed by the women against their family members by non-officials were assault, threats, torture and arson, and the first three were also the most common violations witnessed against family members by officials;

Witnessing of violence against members of the community

• 56% reported violence against members of their community;
• 64% reported that they were themselves victims of community violence;
• 20% reported that they had witnessed 2-5 incidences of violence against members in their communities;
• 16% witnessed this violence more than 10 times.
• The most frequent violations witnessed in the communities were, in order of frequency, assault, threats, torture, destruction of property and arson;
• Violations witnessed by respondents were perpetrated mostly by non-officials rather than officials of the state, but officials were nonetheless mentioned with high frequencies.

Injuries, medical and legal attention

• 15% of the women surveyed indicated that they had suffered some form of physical injury;
• Of this group, 67% had sought medical attention;
• Only 10% gave reasons for their failure to seek medical attention, of that 10%, 51% reported that they were not seriously injured; 9% reported that there were no medical facilities; 9% stated that the facilities were too far away and 31% stated that the available medical facilities were too expensive.

Assistance by the police

• 23% of those that reported experiencing political violence reported the matter to the police;
• Of those that did not report, 67% indicated that they did not report their violations to the police because of fear of reprisals;
• 31% did not report to the police because the police were involved in the violence.

Legal support

• 4% of women victims reported that they had sought legal advice;
• 74% of this group reported that they had no knowledge of where to go for legal assistance;
• 13% said could not afford the costs involved with litigation.

Effects on women

• 45% felt that women were affected differently to men by politically motivated violence;
• 18% felt that women were affected by the violence differently from men because women could be victims of rape;
• 15% thought this was because women were weaker than men and were therefore unable to defend themselves;
• 8% reported that the perpetrators violated women in order to get back at their husbands.

Rural versus urban women

• The number of violations reported was significantly higher among rural women. The violations that were reported more frequently were assault, torture, property destruction, abduction and rape;
• Non-officials were the most frequently reported perpetrators of violations against women;
• Rural women that reported being forced to vote were significantly more likely to also report political violence compared with their urban counterparts, and were also more likely to have experienced personal violence [assault, torture, etc], and to have been injured as a consequence of the violence;
• Rural women also reported significantly more violence against members of their family and in their communities, mostly by ZANU-PF supporters, war veterans, the police and the army;
• 62% of the women from Mashonaland provinces reported that they had been victims of political violence as opposed to 46% from the other provinces;
• The Mashonaland sample reported much greater involvement of officials than did those from the other provinces, and this was the case for all violations except indecent assault;
• Mashonaland provinces reported significantly higher frequencies of violations by non-officials, but for a smaller range of violations - abduction, assault, indecent assault, property destruction, and torture;
• The Mashonaland sample reported significantly higher rates of rape by officials than any other group;
• Of those that reported that they were victims of violence, 24% of the women from Mashonaland provinces reported that they were physically injured in contrast to 10% of the women from other provinces.

Politically Motivated Rape

• 2% of the sample reported being raped personally, and 3% reported that a family member had been raped;
• The chances of rape were significantly increased if there were other violations, and markedly more so where the alleged perpetrator was a non-official;

Political party affiliation

• 68% of the women that supported MDC-T reported that they were victims of political violence, as opposed to
• 34% of those that supported ZANU-PF;
• Women who claimed allegiance to the MDC-T reported significantly higher levels of all violations. The most frequent violations were threats, assault, property destruction, torture, arbitrary arrest, arson, indecent assault, rape and abductions;
• Violations were significantly more common at the hands of non-officials;
• Of those that stated that they were forced to vote, supporters of MDC-T were more likely to report having been a victim of political violence, had more personal experience of political violence, had more family members experience political violence, and had witnessed more political violence in the community than their ZANU-PF counterparts.

Recommendations

• There is an imperative need to end political violence generally in Zimbabwe, and the risks to women (and the families that they care for) require urgent attention by the government and the political parties, not least for the purpose of promoting non-violent elections.
• The need for the security agencies to operate in a non-partisan fashion is crucial to the prevention of political violence, and the calls for total civilian oversight and control of the security forces must be taken seriously and acted upon with urgency.
• There is equally an urgent need for the strongest possible steps to be taken to ensure that all political parties abjure violence by their supporters, and the requirement that all political parties sign a code of conduct explicitly renouncing violence and intimidation.
• The indications about the extent of politically motivated rape require urgent attention from the government, and the relevant ministries, and especially the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare which should undertake a large scale investigation of the extent of politically motivated rape in order that a comprehensive programme of assistance to the victims can be put in place.

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