National 8 (Spotlight Weekly)

Violence against Women

A documentary features heart-rending cases of violence against women

By A CORRESSPONDENT

Torturous and terrifying - the half an hour long documentary portrays glimpses of the violence faced by Nepalese women. Under the concept, direction, script and narration by Bandana Rana, president of Sancharika Samuha, a Women Communicator's Forum, thirty minutes long documentary Mother, Sister and Daughter portrays how barbaric atrocities are committed against women in Nepal.

Although the documentary aims to focus its attention to project the violence committed against women living in different parts of the country, it mainly highlights the events and cases of Terai region.

Professional and well filmed, the documentary has many positive aspects it could boast. However, it focuses chiefly on the violent aspects overshadowing the other existing positive hues of Nepalese society.

There are wide spread prevalence of dowry system among the population of Terai. Of late, women living in hills and urban areas, too, are facing similar kinds of violence. Treating it as a matter of prestige and privilege, the urban population always covers up the disputes and cases of violence. Had some such cases from the cities also been presented, the documentary would have maintained the balanced approach.

The documentary was shown to scores of audiences last week in capital. In the presence of Minister of Information and Communication Kamal Thapa, many urban fathers, mothers, daughter and sons shared the feeling projected in the documentary.

With rampant poverty, illiteracy and discrimination surrounding them, women are always vulnerable to the domestic violence. As presented by Rana, the problems related to violence against women are severe.

"From social and cultural beliefs to other means, women's voices are suppressed and they fail to enjoy the rights guaranteed by the constitution and international conventions," said Bandana Rana.

Making a film highlighting problems like domestic violence against women is not an easy job. Despite some shortcomings, the documentary deserves the credit for its projection of the general problems of domestic violence against women.

Shrijana Singh Yonjan had contributed in visual and music sequencing of the film. Siddhartha Shakya is the editor and cameraman. The technical quality of the documentary is excellent. With the support from DFID/ ESP, the documentary attempts to provide an examination of the problems through interviews with survivors of violence, social activists, legal practitioners and media.