When rape leads to pregnancy

Using a comprehensive qualitative approach this research focuses on a problematic social phenomenon: the rape of young Burundian women some of whom become pregnant after the assault. This research aims to understand the experiences associated with the aggressor's pregnancy borne by a victim evolving in a highly patriarchal Burundian society. The research shows how victims of such pregnancies are left to fend for themselves in a context of discrimination and socio-economic precariousness. This situation leads some of them to terminate their pregnancies exposing themselves to legal proceedings as voluntary abortion is criminalized by Burundian penal law and demonized by the collective imagination.