This example makes it clear that eliminating marital rape can only begin when Zimbabwe as a country recognises the need for gender equality and the rights of women. A change of mindsets, recognising women’s right to negotiate for sex, within or outside marriage, will end rape. The law can only facilitate and reflect social change, but can seldom initiate nor guarantee the necessary change. Although most of the respondents, whether with tertiary education [82%] or without [74%] thought that it is possible for a married woman to be raped by her husband, surprisingly significantly more people with tertiary education [7%] did not know if marital rape is possible than those without [4%]. Again, although the majority of respondents across all age groups indicated that marital rape exists with [78%] of those under 30 and [79%] of those above 30 attesting to this, it was disturbing to note that it was the under 30 group that had most persons who thought that there was no such thing as marital rape, [19%] as compared to [16%] for those over 30. A greater number of persons in the middle class were of the notion that marital rape exists whilst a significantly high number of the working class did not agree with the same notion. 4.1.7 Rapist Husband vs. Raped Wife The trajectory of society’s perception of victims of sexual violence, and how they should be treated, as it emerged from the survey was worth noting. The findings of this research portrayed that patriarchy certainly disempowers women, but its institutions and values may be perpetuated by women more than they are by men as would be the presumption. The study sought to establish why women are treated as outcasts for being victims, and so the questionnaire juxtaposed two questions to the respondents. First, whether a married woman whose husband has been convicted of rape should remain married to him, and, second, whether a married man should remain with his wife after she has been raped. In relation to the first question, more men [38%] than women [22%] said that a woman should not stay with her husband if the husband is found guilty of rape. This meant that a great number of men did not think that a man convicted of rape deserved his wife’s sympathy, and, so, if she chose to leave him, then she was justified in doing so. These responses also showed that women were more likely to stay with their husbands even though the husbands would have been convicted of rape. A large number of the men also said they did not know whether a male rapist should be abandoned by his wife. The response to the question of whether a married man should keep his wife after she has been raped recorded a small margin in difference between the two groups, with the majority agreeing that he should. This response, however, did not tally with the findings of previous research in which actual victims of rape reported that they were sent away by their husbands for being raped; the study of a sample of women, focused on these women’s experiences with politically motivated rape.35 Most of the victims said that they had not reported their cases for fear of being abandoned by their spouses once the husbands found out that they had been raped. 36 This fear was not unfounded as four (4) of them had actually been divorced after the husbands knew of the rape.37 This happened despite the fact that most of the women had been targeted for rape because of the political affiliation and activities of their husbands.38 However, of those who were of the view that a man should not remain with his wife after she has been raped more were women [21%] than men [18%]. Whether this is a case of women looking down upon their fellow women who have been raped or it is a case of women perpetuating the idea of a woman’s 35 ‘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. 36 ‘No Hiding Place’ ibid p.13. 37 No Hiding Place ibid p.14. 38 No Hiding Place ibid p. 4.