From my experience of prosecuting sexual and gender-based violence cases, the root cause of this violence is that culturally, women are considered as (inferior) subjects under men’s authority. The level of awareness of the rights of women and girls is very low, especially in rural communities.
I think when someone is not directly involved in dealing with these cases, they tend to underestimate the magnitude of the problem. Violence against women and girls, especially rape is a problem that is destroying the social fabric.