insertion of objects (bottles and sticks) into the women’s genitalia.11 For a significant percentage of the sample, HIV was a consequence of their rape. Similar findings emerged from two other studies: one in which Zimbabwean women were part of a sample of women refugees in the UK,12 and the other a study in which 78 Zimbabwean women in South Africa and Botswana who were victims of politically motivated rape were interviewed.13 In yet other research projects carried out by RAU, it emerged that victims of rape were often abandoned by their husbands with some women reporting cases of their fellow villagers whose husbands divorced them after finding out they had been raped.14 A Harvard publication confirmed that this is merely not a Zimbabwean but it is a global phenomenon that men abandon their partners in intimate relationships once they discover that the woman was raped. 15 The reasons for such abandonment include the patriarchal notion in which men recognise women as their property, and hence a sexual attack on a woman is more of an affront to her husband’s ego than an attack on her bodily integrity and human dignity. RAU also prepared three documentaries, entitled “Hear Us: Women in Zimbabwe affected by political violence speak out,”16 “What about Us,”17and “A State of Shame”18 which amplify and corroborate the statistics given above. The findings that came out of the various pieces of research, focusing on politically motivated rape, paved the way for the need for a deeper understanding of Zimbabwean society’s perceptions of sexual violence, both against men and women. It is for this reason that this research was conducted. 2. METHODOLOGY In order to gain some understanding about public perceptions of sexual violence, RAU carried a preliminary study. This report is based on the results of this study, which was done through the administration of a questionnaire prepared by RAU. The questionnaire (see attached) was pilot tested twice. Two trainings for enumerators were carried out to introduce the questionnaire as well as to test its accuracy in eliciting the anticipated responses. Cross tabulations were done in relation to four factors – gender, education, age, and class. Class was operationalised according to certain factors shaping respondents’ current status including tertiary or no tertiary education, professional or non-professional employment, formal or informal self-employment, or a combination of these variables. Frequency scores were calculated for the whole sample, and simple tests of significance (Odds-Ratios) were calculated for each pair of variables. Only those variables where there were significant differences in the frequency of responding are highlighted in this report. 3. DEMOGRAPHY The sample of respondents to which the questionnaire was administered consisted of 222 people, 101 males and 121 females, with the mean age being 34 and 33 for men and women respectively. The number of married men was significantly higher than that of women, with [59%] of men married compared to the 48% of the women. The sample also had more men who had attained primary and 11 RAU (2010), No Hiding Place: Politically Motivated Rape of Women in Zimbabwe, Report Produced by the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR), December 2010, p.2. 12 Medical Foundation Justice Denied: The experiences of 100 torture surviving women of seeking justice and rehabilitation 2009 p.4. 13 Aids Free World “Electing to rape: sexual violence terror in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe” 2009 www.aidsfreeworld.org. 14 RAU (2012), Do we really matter? Women’s voices on politics, participation and violence, Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), June 2012, p.10/17. 15 OXFAM (2010) Now the World is Without me, An investigation of Sexual Violence in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Oxfam America (2010) p.30. 16 Available at http://hub.witness.org/HearUs-ViolenceAgainstWomeninZimbabwe2. 17 Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vThYv6rUP34. 18 Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UkOXEefXc8.