Abstract
BackgroundRape of women and children is recognized as a health and human rights issue in Tanzania and internationally. Exploration of the prevailing perceptions in rural areas is needed in order to expand the understanding of sexual violence in the diversity of Tanzania’s contexts. The aim of this study therefore was to explore and understand perceptions of rape of women and children at the community level in a rural district in Tanzania with the added objective of exploring those perceptions that may contribute to perpetuating and/or hindering the disclosure of rape incidences.MethodsA qualitative design was employed using focus group discussions with male and female community members including religious leaders, professionals, and other community members. The discussions centered on causes of rape, survivors of rape, help-seeking and reporting, and gathered suggestions on measures for improvement. Six focus group discussions (four of single gender and two of mixed gender) were conducted. The focus group discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using manifest qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe participants perceived rape of women and children to be a frequent and hidden phenomenon. A number of factors were singled out as contributing to rape, such as erosion of social norms, globalization, poverty, vulnerability of children, alcohol/drug abuse and poor parental care. Participants perceived the need for educating the community to raise their knowledge of sexual violence and its consequences, and their roles as preventive agents.ConclusionsIn this rural context, social norms reinforce sexual violence against women and children, and hinder them from seeking help from support services. Addressing the identified challenges may promote help-seeking behavior and improve care of survivors of sexual violence, while changes in social and cultural norms are needed for the prevention of sexual violence.
Highlights
Rape of women and children is recognized as a health and human rights issue in Tanzania and internationally
Corruption, for example, could prevent a woman from accessing justice if the perpetrator had the means to “pay off” the police or local government officials. This finding, which is in line with a study of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) done in a semi-urban area in Tanzania [35], contributed to the low rate of help-seeking observed among women and children
The current study shows that if you are in a marriage, you are forced to remain in that relationship even when you are abused, because of the fear of being blamed for disclosing affairs internal to the relationship, and because marital rape is not recognized by Tanzanian law
Summary
Rape of women and children is recognized as a health and human rights issue in Tanzania and internationally. Rape was defined as sexual contact that occurs without the woman’s consent, involves the use of force, threat of force, intimidation, or when the woman was of unsound mind due to illness or intoxication and involves sexual penetration of the victim’s vagina, mouth or, rectum [5,6]. We preferred this definition to the legal definition of rape in Tanzania, which does not recognize marital rape
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