Key Social Norms Take-aways Social norms in Rwanda around sexual violence assign blame to adolescent girls, discourage reporting, and normalize male entitlement to sex. Girls are burdened with responsibility for preventing violence, while perpetrators often benefit from social protection, particularly within families. Using vignettes allowed girls to critically reflect on and challenge these norms, revealing a gap between community attitudes and their personal beliefs. The vignette discussions enabled “conscientisation,” fostering solidarity among girls and offering an entry point for transforming internalized stigma and silence into collective awareness and potential action.
Objectives To explore how social norms around sexual violence shape adolescent girls’ beliefs, decision-making, and access to justice in Rwanda, and to assess the potential of vignettes as a participatory method to surface and address these norms.
Methods The study involved five focus group discussions with 34 adolescent girls aged 15–19 in Rwanda. The vignettes exercise aimed to explore their attitudes about key issues (sexual violence, disability, education, marriage, psychosocial wellbeing) and options for change. This article focuses on the vignette about sexual violence; participants responded to a culturally grounded vignette about a fictional girl who was raped by a relative. The vignette was followed by guided questions designed to elicit discussion about perceptions of blame, community attitudes, reporting, and justice. Discussions were analyzed thematically using the GAGE “3 Cs” framework (Capabilities, Change strategies, and Contexts), with attention to collective capabilities and critical reflection.
Results Participants recognized the scenario as realistic and recounted similar events from their communities. Discussions revealed that girls often internalize social norms that blame victims for sexual violence—e.g., for visiting boys or being unaccompanied. While many girls expressed sympathy toward victims and condemned community blaming, they also highlighted the difficulty of reporting perpetrators, particularly when they are family members. Girls described how blame is shifted to mothers for “failing to supervise” daughters, reinforcing gendered household norms. Despite knowing that sexual violence is a crime, girls reported that social stigma, family pressure to “handle it privately,” and lack of institutional support undermine reporting and justice. The vignette enabled girls to explore accountability, forgiveness, and pathways for seeking justice, revealing tensions between personal beliefs and prevailing social expectations.
Conclusions Vignettes offer a powerful method for exploring sensitive issues like sexual violence and shifting internalized norms. In contexts where social stigma silences victims, this participatory method can foster collective awareness and dialogue. Vignettes can empower girls to critically reflect on injustice, opening possibilities for solidarity and change. Future interventions should integrate such tools within broader efforts to transform norms and build supportive systems for adolescent girls.