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A/HRC/28/69 47 medical assistance is denied to detainees. Female victims of sexual violence who have fled Syria may be reluctant to convey their testimonies due to their continued vulnerability as displaced, often female-headed households. 173. The lives of Syrian women have been radically altered by four years of violence and conflict. Many women interviewed described the psychological and physical repercussions they and their children experienced in the aftermath of witnessing the death of their husbands and fathers. A woman whose husband went missing in March 2012 in Al-Shaar neighbourhood, Aleppo city, described being in denial about his fate despite being told that he had died in a Government bombardment. Many women explained that they fled their homes for fear of their husbands or sons being arrested. With the rise in female-headed households and demographic shifts as a result of mass displacement and deaths and disappearances of fighting-age men, women have also experienced a shift in their societal roles. In Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Dara’a governorates, women cited a fear of sexual violence in their decisions to flee their homes. 174. Men and boys who are considered to be of ‘fighting-age’ through the policies and acts of Government forces and affiliated militia, have been subjected to physical and psychological violence on the basis of their gender. Perceived as likely to participate in hostilities against the Government or aid armed groups, men and boys have been arrested, tortured, disappeared, and killed on grounds of suspected affiliation or loyalty. With their freedom of movement constrained due to the constant fear of apprehension at Government checkpoints, men and boys have been forced to remain in zones of active hostilities. Sexual violence and torture is commonly employed against male detainees in Government detention facilities as an interrogation tactic, to degrade and humiliate. 175. Material collected further corroborates previous findings of sexual torture and rape being employed in Government detention facilities operated by security and intelligence agencies in Damascus. Torture methods such as the application of electric shocks to the genitals, were consistently and widely documented. Male detainees were subjected to sexual assault, sexual torture and rape in Branch 291 between June and October 2011, in Branch 215 between 2012 and 2013 and in June 2014. Rape and sexual violence was employed against men detained in Sednaya Prison, administered by the Military Police, in February 2013. Six documented incidents of rape and sexual torture used in the course of interrogations of male detainees in the Air Force Intelligence Branch in Mezzeh military airport between August 2011 and October 2014 were recorded. Male survivors of assaults described sexual torture employed at checkpoints between August 2011 and January 2012 and in January 2014. Detainees held in Mezzeh Prison and Hospital 601 were also threatened with rape in the course of their interrogations and torture. 176. Some female detainees were subject to sexual violence, including rape in Government detention facilities, in particular in the investigation branches of the Military Intelligence Directorate (commonly known as Military Security) located in Kafr Sousa (Damascus). Branches 248, 215 and 291 are located in the same building and contain holding cells underground. Documented incidents of female detainees being sexually assaulted and raped occurred in Branch 291 between June and October 2011, in Branch 215 between 2012 and 2013 and in 2014, and in three separate incidents in Branch 248 between April 2012 and June 2013. A woman was raped in the General Intelligence Branch 285 in Kafr Sousa in 2012. 177. A female detainee was sexually tortured in Branch 227 between April and June 2014. Sexual violence was also employed against female detainees at Air Force Intelligence branches, in Harasta between March and September 2012, and in Mezzeh military airport between May and October 2014