Full report - International Alert

30 • Women’s Bodies as a Battleground: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls During the War in the Democratic Republic of Congo4.2 Marital StatusMarital state No. (Total = 492) %Single 87 17.7Married 291 59.1Widowed 91 18.5Divorced 23 4.7Total 492 100Table 4: Distribution of interviewees by marital statusThe sample included single, married, widowed and divorced women. The majority were married women,representing 59.1% of the sample, followed by widows (18.5%), single women (17.7%), and divorcedwomen (4.7%).The reasons for the predominance of married women in this area are the low rate of schoolenrolment in rural areas and the custom of early marriage for young girls. This is partly due to theFamily Code which fixes the minimum age for marriage at 15 years for girls and 18 years for theboys. Given this situation, the main preoccupation of an uneducated girl is, from the age of 15onwards, to get married and start her own home. The education of boys is given preference over thatof girls, especially in poor families.Another explanation for the predominance of married women in this area could be the constraintsof marriage, which mean that a wife has to stay at her husband’s side, whereas many unmarried girlshad the opportunity to leave the rural areas to find refuge in urban centres long before the violencebecame rife.Almost all the widows in the sample said that their husbands had died during the past years of brutalconflict, leaving them completely responsible for their family. Among the single women, some of the rapevictims were under 19 years of age, so they were still expecting to be married. Those who were past thetraditional age of marriage felt themselves compelled to remain single, having been stigmatised andlabelled as ‘old maids’. Some had decided to give up the idea of marrying because of the disgust that theyfelt after the traumatic experience of rape and sexual abuse.4.3 Educational levelLevel of education No. (Total = 492) %Never been to school 329 66.9Primary 75 15.2Secondary 87 17.7University 1 0.2Total 492 100Table 5: Distribution of interviewees by level of education