“The Gender Dimension of Abusive Marriage Relationships in the Modern Zimbabwe†Insights from Harare

Domestic violence cases are seemingly on the rise in the Zimbabwean context, the most enduring and victimised group are the women. The patriarchal hegemony is still dictating the politics of domestic affairs of the modern day, and women as the main victims of most domestic violence cases tend to stay in the relation regardless of enormous abusive challenges. It is from this background that this research was conducted to examine contributing factors that forces women to stay in abusive relationships. The qualitative methodology was chosen as the most appropriate methodology to test the research question of this topic. The population for research was based on women in Harare, and the sample was drawn from voluntary women in a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that specialises in domestic violence related issues known as the Anti-Domestic Violence Council (ADVC) (n=10). The interview guide was chosen as the most appropriate tool for exploration of data from the participants, and data was analysed and presented based Anti-Domestic Violence Council (ADVC) using thematic analysis. It come out that cases of domestic violence are prevalent in many marriage relationships in the modern Zimbabwe. Factors such as culture, fear and lack of knowledge amongst many contribute to women’s endurance to abusive relationships.