4 “discipline” their wives when the occasion requires7. While the Legal Age of Majority Act in 1982 removed the status of women as perpetual minors under the guardianship of either father or husband, the legislation did not, of course, immediately alter this traditional perception8. It is still the case that instances of rape in the rural areas are dealt with outside of the courts by village leaders. Frequently, the settlement requires the rapist or his family to pay compensation, not to the woman or girl, but to her father. The compensation which is paid is regarded as ameliorating what would be a reduced bride price “roora” paid to the bride’s father on account of the violation. As will be seen below, this “proprietal” ethos in relation to women has a sinister dimension in facets of political violence against women. Both civil conflict and internal displacement have been key characteristics of Zimbabwe since 1999. The source of internal displacement has been twofold, firstly, through the displacement of farm labour during the invasion of white-owned farmland from early 2000 to 2005 and secondly through the now-notorious “urban clean-up” operation called “Operation Murambatsvina”9 which saw the demolition of homes and the displacement of an estimated 700 000 people. It has been noted that women and children, are the most common victims in situations where organized violence and torture become prevalent and are frequently the first victims in civil conflict. They are also the most greatly affected in cases of internal displacement. This report, examining the violent and turbulent years between 2000 and 2006, shows that Zimbabwe has been no exception in this regard. The data The data given below derives from two main sources. Firstly, some 96710 cases of gender-based violence reported, in the period under examination, to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (“Forum data”). Of these, 448 cases to date have been entered into an electronic data-base facilitating the analysis which follows. The analysis is thus based on this smaller group of 448, but could be extrapolated to the full 967 cases. Secondly, data has been captured by the Human Rights Forum from 425 cases in the public domain (“press data”). Of these cases, 221 were reported as having been motivated solely by the political affiliation of the victim. 7 UNICEF-Zimbabwe UNICEF denounces violence against women and calls on all Zimbabweans to halt the horror. March 01, 2006. 8 See generally AFROL Gender profiles at: http://www.afrol.com/Categories/Women/profiles/zimbabwe_women.htm accessed 21/11/06 9 A literal translation of the term would be “drive out filth”. 10 The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has reported over 15,000 human rights violations since July 2001. “A Woman’s Place is in the Home ?” – Gender Based Violence and Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe.