Claire Cozens
Devi Khadka was just 17 when she was taken into custody by police looking for her brother, a combatant in Nepal’s decade-long civil war. When she refused to give them information, she was first subjected to a violent assault that left her vomiting blood, then repeatedly raped by police officers. “After four I lost count,” she recalls in “Devi”, a new film about her life.
Last month, Nepal passed a new transitional justice bill that for the first time sets out a clear path to justice for thousands of survivors of wartime rape and serious sexual violence, eighteen years after the armed conflict between Maoist rebels and the state ended.
Much of this is down to Khadka, now 45, whose ordeal spurred her to join the rebels as a fighter and who later became a parliamentarian for the Maoist party that was formed after the 2006 peace deal. She has dedicated the last few years of her life to rallying fellow survivors in a campaign for justice. The film doesn’t just tell the story of her journey to becoming an activist, it actually turns her into one. When Nepali documentary-maker Subina Shrestha first started filming, the survivors’ stories had, she says, effectively been erased. “The process of documentary making forced me to action,” Khadka has said since. “I realized I had to speak up.”
At the start of the film, Khadka is a somewhat reluctant campaigner. When one senior male politician suggests she is the best person to take on the fight for justice over wartime sexual violence, she responds wearily by saying that if she had the strength, she’d have done so by now. Gradually though, we see her anger with the intransigent or dismissive attitudes of men in positions of power build — and with it, her determination. At one point she meets with the head of the truth and reconciliation commission, who tells her only 314 of the 64,000 cases of wartime abuses registered by his staff relate to sexual violence. Khadka estimates there are many thousands of cases.
For Nepal’s survivors of wartime sexual violence, the fight is far from over. But Shrestha, who covered the civil war as a young journalist, says that for the first time, there is a clear path to justice and reparations. She now wants to hold screenings in other post-conflict countries where sexual violence survivors are seeking justice.
Here is our interview with Shrestha, lightly edited for length:
Tell us how this documentary came into being — how did you first come across Devi Khadka and how did you persuade her to take part in making the film?
I first heard of Devi back in the late 1990s. There were many news articles about her; doubting that she was ever raped by the police, blaming her, defending the police force that raped her, and some in support of her. She did not trust journalists or filmmakers. I finally met her in 2018 when she agreed to give an interview to me for a news piece. Soon after that, she gave me her diary. She wanted me to do something with her story. She had seen my work. But, as literacy came to her along with an introduction to Maoist rebellion, her writing was often infused with propaganda. I had a small team in Nepal. It took a year of audio interviews with her to get the story straight. This included a lot of family visits. This time also helped in building trust. I was prepared to do a 15-minute personal story. I never knew that it would consume the next five years of my life, nor that it would turn into a feature documentary.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in making this film?
Wartime rape had effectively been erased by the Nepali state. I knew that if I did not tell the story, there was nobody else to do it. But it’s a difficult story to tell on so many levels.
Nepal is not an easy sell, unless it is a story about mountains, Sherpas or Gurkhas. So it was difficult to get people’s attention. And rape is not the sexiest topic. Until news stories of wartime rape in Ukraine started circulating, it was difficult to get any traction. We’d literally get questions like, “Why would anyone be interested?” And we could not publicize the story in Nepal while we were shooting as some of the rapists were and are still powerful. We had to lay low. So we had to raise initial funds through personal assets. Later, we managed to get funding, especially from Korea.
The film was also emotionally difficult as there was a lot of vicarious trauma that came with it. Devi too suffered because of it. We had to let her deal with her emotions. There were times when she would just go to her village and farm for months. This was just her coping mechanism. She wanted to run away from it all and it was understandable. It was during COVID. Our cameraman was very patient. He just waited it out in her village.
Personally, I had to deal with vicarious trauma myself. The Dart Centre was very helpful in finding the right resources to cope with it.
Can you describe how Devi’s attitude changed over the course of making the film?
When we started the film, Devi was still a politician, trying to figure out how to deal with the trauma that had impacted her. She’d lost her brother to the civil war and she had survivor’s guilt. In one of the first interviews, she described her life as ‘colorless’ and struggled to find the meaning of life. She was frantic, and it felt like she was running away from something.
After several meetings with groups of survivors, there was a visible shift in her demeanor. Having these women rely on her must have been scary. But they also had great faith in her capacity to challenge and beat the system. This gave her strength. Meeting her old therapist who supported her throughout the filmmaking process was also a great support.
During the process of filmmaking, hearing herself telling her own story, helped her sharpen her vision. Her language on sexual violence changed and the demands of accountability from her party and the state became much sharper.
Can you explain how her campaign took shape — how she managed to win over the politicians?
Devi’s campaign really started gathering momentum in March 2022 when the first group of women gathered and presented their list of demands to the then prime minister. Right from the outset, the political leaders understood that she was not partisan when it came to the rights of wartime rape and sexual violence survivors. Since then, the survivors have built a network and having the strength of a network has been helpful for Devi.
Devi is a pretty shrewd political actor as she has been in mainstream politics for a long time. She has a very good relationship with cross party members and has been actively lobbying with them to include wartime rape and sexual violence in the amendments of the Truth and Reconciliation Act. She’s taken help from human rights activists to draft the language, and the Nepali press has been incredibly supportive. To move political leaders, other survivors have stood beside her and have forced politicians to listen to their testimonies. All these acts of bravery by the survivors has really changed the narrative of wartime rape in Nepal.
You held screenings last month for survivors across the country. What’s been their response?
The survivors have really appreciated the film. In some screenings, they were so thankful to the team for finally ‘being seen’, ‘being heard’ and ‘being respected’. The women were really charged after the screenings, wanting to continue the demand for accountability. Seeing Devi’s difficulty and trauma, and her willingness despite it all to be their face and voice, has given them a renewed respect towards her. There is an increasing feeling of solidarity and all survivors have a common purpose.
Finally, do you think this change in Nepal’s approach to sexual violence in war could have implications in other contexts/countries?
When Devi spoke at the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict conference in the UK in November 2022, participants from many countries identified with her experiences. Women from decades old wars in South Asia to internal civil wars in Peru have all experienced the same kinds of sexual violence and their voices have been ‘erased’ or ‘suppressed’ in the same ways. Post Devi’s speech, they all wanted to talk to her. We’re raising money to screen the film in post-conflict countries with Devi as a participant, and have meaningful discussions. This is one of the ways to bolster other survivors to organize, demand accountability and help foster a global solidarity amongst survivors. We really hope we can do this.
