Bulawayo women violent - Government report

A Government commissioned survey has claimed that Bulawayo women are the most violent countrywide as they periodically  lash their husbands.

To compound the matter, women who attend Pentecostal churches are in the forefront.

The 2015 ZDHS was conducted nationally with a representative sample of over 11 000 households.

According to  the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (2015), Bulawayo scored seven percent, Harare (five) and  Midlands has  4,5 percent.

The report findings further reveal that  4,5 percent of Pentecostal congregants bash their spouses followed by those from Protestant churches and Apostolic sects with four and three percent respectively.

"In the 2015 ZDHS, ever-married women were asked about instances when they were the instigator of spousal violence.

"Four percent of ever-married women report that they have instigated physical violence against their current or most recent husband and two percent report that they have done so in the past year," reads the report.

While some activists who fight for women's rights are calling for stiffer penalties on perpetrators of gender-based violence as a deterrent measure to ensure it is put to an end, activists standing for men's rights argue domestic violence can only be nipped if there is dialogue between women's groups and men's groups to find lasting solutions to the scourge.

There is also a lot of concern that victims of gender-based violence sometimes have nowhere to run to as they find more vultures in institutions like churches where they are supposed to seek solace, but end up being abused by the men of cloth who are supposed to protect them.