Violence Against Women
“The main issue for many women in Zimbabwe is politically motivated violence. And it is not just rape that we are talking about. We are talking about beating and violent sexual assault of women, just because they vote for a party of their choice,” says Zimbabwean women’s rights activist and filmmaker Kudakwashe Chitsike from the Research and Advocacy Unit.
Chitsike is speaking of the thousands of women who were systematically and deliberately raped and tortured in the run-up to the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe by men loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF). The rapes are an attempt to break the back of Mugabe’s political opponents by intimidating them and their husbands and families into not participating in the political process.
Things have not improved in Zimbabwe since 2008. According to a newly published report by RAU titled ‘Women and Political Violence: An Update,’ “the situation on the ground [in Zimbabwe] has not changed in any material detail from that on 2008 … [in fact] the political terrain is even more explosive and tense.”
Crime against humanity
“52% of women who participated in a survey in Zimbabwe stated that they were victims of political violence,” says Chitsike, “meaning that they had encountered some form of violence as a result of their political affiliation. This is unacceptable considering that Zimbabwe has signed regional and international instruments protecting and promoting women's rights."
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as other similar regional treaties such as the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, and discrimination against women is forbidden by Zimbabwe’s constitution.
Additionally, rape as part of a systematic attack against a civilian population has been regarded as a crime against humanity since 1998 by the international community, as well as a war crime.
But the present level of intervention by the UN and the international community is vastly insufficient, she says, and is not felt in the villages of Zimbabwe. “Without looking at the situation on the ground, the UN resolutions will not do the women any good. It is not being applied within the country.”
Women who are affiliated to the MDC receive little actual protection, as the recurring examples of the use of rape as a political weapon in Zimbabwe show. “It has been reported during the liberation war in the seventies and since 2000 there has been increasing reports of political motivated violence against women,” Chitsike says.
But even though rape as a political weapon has been used in Zimbabwe for many years, the systematic raping of an estimated 2-3000 MDC-supporters by Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) youth militia, Central Intelligence Organisation agents, soldiers, police and so-called “war veterans” affiliated with Zanu (PF) in the run-up to the 2008 presidential elections, stand out in scope and brutality.
Stigmatised
Many of the women who were systematically raped in 2008 were also severely beaten prior to the actual rape and then gang-raped until they lost consciousness. Many have had their property destroyed, lost their livelihood and have been intimidated by the perpetrators or police officers since being raped.
And many have been stigmatised and ostracised by their husbands and communities, and have subsequently had to flee their houses and communities, many across the border to neighbouring South Africa.
Most of the victims subsequently have not reported the rape to the authorities, nor have they received trauma care for the sleeplessness, flashbacks, nightmares and feelings of hopelessness they experienced, according to a report on politically motivated rape in Zimbabwe from 2010 made by RAU and the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors.
And since politically motivated violence against women is severely under-reported, the problem is probably bigger in scope than such reports can anticipate, says Chitsike. “We know that women do not report rapes, we know the numbers are much higher because women and men know that perpetrators act with impunity.”
Victims of politically motivated rape receive little protection or help from Zimbabwe’s legal and medical care system either. Many of the victims from 2008 were refused treatment by the state medical facilities or found it difficult to even pay the administration fees that are required to acquire a protection order against the perpetrators.
This is the case, even though the victims of politically motivated rape are often severely traumatised by the psychological and physical consequences, which include fear of HIV infection and pregnancy, of the act of rape itself.
Orders from above
The reason for the lack of support from Zimbabwe’s state institutions for the victims becomes evident when one understands that the orders to systematically rape and torture MDC-supporters comes from the very top. Speeches by Mugabe himself and presidential pardons for those found guilty of political violence send the clear message that there is impunity for the perpetrators.
There is no need for expensive weaponry and no shortage of penniless young men who are willing to contribute for a small fee in a sexist and politically oppressive society such as Zimbabwe.
As for those who have already been raped in order for Mugabe to stay in power, they have seemingly lost faith in Zimbabwe’s justice system, the potency of the MDC or the intervention of the international community on their behalf.
Indeed, most of the victims interviewed by RAU in 2010 said that they were more concerned with rebuilding their lives through “immediate medical, social and psychological support” than in “justice” being served.
Solutions?
Politically motivated violence against women is clearly both vast and multifaceted problem that will not go away by itself. Reporting and analysing the problem is one thing, but actually finding a solution is much harder.
According to Chitsike, any durable solution must include a coordinated effort that also involves people in Zimbabwe mobilising and revealing the crimes that go on in their neighbourhoods and their country as a whole to the world.
“We are failing to mobilise people living within Zimbabwe,” she says. “In 2008, people just stayed in their houses. Instead, the community needs to act together. Civil society in Zimbabwe needs to let people know their rights. The government is also failing. We are forgetting to engage men as well, to make the issue of violence against women a national issue. And we need to do a lot more around advocacy to involve people abroad.”