Rural Young Women Support Network director, Margaret Chogugudza has blamed  poor social service delivery systems in  rural communities for being one of the major contributors towards high prevalence of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the country.

Presenting as a guest speaker on Media Centre’s ‘Talking Point’ WhatsApp Chat interaction, Chogugudza said while gender based violence occur to and affects all women who live both in the country’s urban and rural communities, women in rural communities are more vulnerable victims who lack an awareness, emancipation and access to communication platforms they can use to speak out.

“Women in urban and rural areas face the same types of violence, that is, physical, emotional, psychological and financial, but with rural women the situation is quite worse because they lack access to services like the justice system, the police stations which are far. Imagine a GBV victim, bruised and hurt, having to travel maybe 10-15 km to reach the nearest police station, the hospitals are also far and in most cases they would not have enough resources.

There is also lack of access to information, for example women are unaware of their rights, the laws that protect them against gender based violence and the steps they ought to take when they want to report on GBV cases. Women also lack access to employment opportunities which causes them to rely on men and at times they end up sacrificing to live with their abusive husbands unorder to eke a living,” said Chogugudza.

“Issues of patriarchy in rural areas are also affecting women. Because of lack of knowledge women are oppressed all in the name of culture. Young girls are married of young,” she added.

Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights abuse in the world, affecting every country and community. While boys and men can be also victims of violence, GBV tends to affect mostly girls and women.

According to the United Nations Population Fund, one in three women will experience some form of abuse in her lifetime.

The world began observing its annual campaign on the 16 Days to End Gender-based Violence on 25th November 2021. Zimbabwe joined the world in advocating against GBV running under the theme, ‘End Violence Against Women and Girls Now: No To Child Marriage!’