‘We Just Die Quietly’: Women’s Pathways from Domestic Violence to Death Row in Uganda

This research examines the drivers of female perpetrated partner homicide in Uganda, drawing on semi-structured interviews with twelve women incarcerated for killing a partner. The research took place in Kampala, Uganda. The findings reveal how women experience intersectioning forms of inequalities that permit and sustain gender-based violence, and are reinforced and replicated at different levels of society. Participants described being pressured to marry at a young age, then compelled to stay in the increasingly abusive situations due to outside tolerance for male perpetrated intimate partner violence and limited avenues of escape. Within this context, the research situates the female perpetrated murder as a strategy for survival in circumstances of prolonged abuse.