‘I don’t like it, but I won’t leave home’: Interpersonal Factors Restricting Married Women in Rural Zimbabwe From Reporting Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

This study explores interpersonal factors that negatively impact married women’s reporting of intimate partner violence. Using the snowball sampling, the data were collected from 12 married women who had suffered intimate partner violence. The findings revealed many interpersonal factors that affect intimate partner abuse reporting, such as the length of the marriage, fear of criminal victimisation, physical impairments, trivialisation of certain types of abuse and a lack of awareness about intimate partner violence. The study calls for the need to build married women’s resilience and mobilise resources to improve their socio-economic status and break their economic dependence on abusive husbands.