Abstracts
Theme: Peace and People’s Rights
Panel: History Through the Lens—Cinematic Depiction of People’s Rights
Session I: The Films
 Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters)
Sabiha Sumar*
Ayesha is a seemingly well-adjusted middle-aged woman whose life centres on her son Saleem-a gentle, dreamy 18-year-old, in love with Zubeida. They live in the village of Charkhi, in Pakistani Punjab. Ayesha's husband is dead and she manages a living from his pension and by giving Quran lessons to young girls. The story begins in 1979, in a Pakistan under President General Zia-ul-Haq's martial law. In a few months the country will become a state ruled by Islamic law. Saleem becomes intensely involved with a group of Islamic fundamentalists and leaves Zubeida. Ayesha is saddened to see her son change radically. Events escalate when Sikh pilgrims from India pour into the village. Later, a pilgrim looks for his sister Veero who was abducted in 1947. This awakens heart-rending memories…
The film is based on actual events that took place when the Indian sub-continent was partitioned in 1947 into two new states-India and Pakistan. It was a time of intense violence. In pre-Partition Punjab, Muslims and Sikhs had lived side-by-side, but during the Partition men from both sides of the religious divide slaughtered each other. Each looted the other's property, which included their respective women: little distinction was made between robbing cattle and abducting women. Muslim men abducted Sikh women while Sikh men abducted Muslim women. The women were raped, bought, sold and, sometimes, murdered; some ended up marrying their abductors.
From the women’s point of view, they faced danger from two sides. The immediate threat came from males within their families. Their fathers, brothers or husbands forced them to commit suicide to preserve chastity and protect family and community honour. If they escaped death at the hands of the family patriarchs, they were targeted by men from across the religious divide as ‘nothing dishonours the enemy more than dishonouring his womenfolk’. Ironically, though, the women stood a better chance of survival against strangers who were less interested to kill them and more keen to dishonour the ‘enemy’ community. The official estimate of the number of abducted women was placed at 50,000 Muslims in India and 33,000 Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. But it is feared that the actual number was much higher.
* Born in 1961 in Karachi, Pakistan, Sabiha Sumar is an independent filmmaker who studied Filmmaking and Political Science at Sarah Lawrence College, New York from 1980 to 1983. She has used her documentaries to critique society and sensitize people about women’s lives.
Mother, Sister, Daughter: The Violence they Face
Bandana Rana*
As the government, society and media do not adequately address the violence that women face, women continue to fall prey to domestic, cultural, social and legal violence. Frequently, women fail to even report the violence, believing themselves responsible for the domestic dispute that precedes the abuse. Yet, even when victims do notify the officials, the absence of laws, criminalizing behavior of the officials, and trivialization of these incidents by law enforcement agents obstruct justice.
This film ‘Mother, Sister, Daughter: The Violence they Face’ (2002) presents glimpses of various forms of inhuman violence faced by women in Nepal and attempts to provide an examination of the problems through depicting violence, interviews with survivors of violence, social activists, legal practitioners and the media.
The duration of the film is 26.16 minutes. Produced by Sancharika Samuha (Women's Media Forum), it is directed by Bandana Rana.
* Bandana Rana is a filmmaker, women’s rights activist and President of Sancharika Samuha (Women's Media Forum).
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