WUNRN
Women Make Movies
Fighting
the Silence - Sexual Violence against Women in the Congo
____________________________________________________________________
CONGO MOVIE ON RAPE - FIGHTING THE
SILENCE
INTERVIEW WITH WOMEN FILMMAKERS
Filmmakers describe the challenge of
tackling a taboo subject like rape in Congo.
During the Democratic
The award-winning film, Fighting the Silence, by twin-sisters Ilse and Femke van
Velzen, tells the stories of rape survivors and the communities that prefer to
blame the victims rather than prosecute the rapists.
Al Jazeera's Rageh Omaar
talks to the filmmakers about the challenges they encountered in making the
film and how they are now bringing it back to the very communities it features.
Rageh Omaar: Why did you
decide to do this film?
Filmmakers:
We were working in Africa for quite a while, so we have made more films in
We started in 2005 and we just wanted to give these women an opportunity to
tell their story, to let the world know what's happening there.
That
was basically it, we heard about the stories, we read more and more, we got
more interested and also shocked by the stories. And hardly anyone talked about
it. So that was sort of our motivation to make this film and to go to DR Congo.
Was it difficult to find the women and how did you get them to
talk about this subject?
For
us it was not too difficult to find them.
It was a long process of research, we worked [for] one and a half years on the
topic before we went to DR Congo to find women and organisations.
And the witnesses we have in the film we actually found through the activist in
our film.
She
had such a bond with these victims and she trusted us, and that was important.
She knew why we wanted to make the story and it was very sincere.
So
in this way, we met the victims and first we built up a trustable bond and they
knew exactly why we were doing this and they also wanted to tell their story.
That was their biggest motivation.
Was it very clear from the beginning when you met the women
through the key character in the film, who is the activist, she is crucial, but
once you met them was it very clear that they wanted their story told? And why
did they want it told?
I
must say that there are so many women raped in DR Congo and there are also a
lot of women who are talking about it.
It is still a huge taboo, but the numbers are so big, that there are groups of
women that are coming together and slowly breaking the silence and talking
about what they went through.
There
are so many - like in a village everyone knows someone who has been raped.
So slowly there is a sort of conversation going and because these women are
sort of helped by the activist, Chantal, they are already in the process, they
already told their story the first time to Chantal and the women she worked
with, so they wanted to tell their story.
And
there are more women in DR Congo that want to let the world know what's
happening there.
An important dimension of your film is that on one
hand it explores rape as a taboo in terms of social attitude, but the other
factor is, because so many women of almost all ages have been affected, it is
no longer a taboo, it is an everyday part of life. Is that fair?
The
difficulty in DR Congo is to understand that so many women have been
raped, but it is still a huge taboo.
And that's still the case because in a culture like when a woman is raped it is
not accepted, if she has a husband and she is raped, that is unacceptable and
she is the curse of the family.
|
Women activist Chantal in a special seminar for military and police
about sexual violence |
There is one of the lines in one of the interviews of a husband of
a woman who was raped. He says "it is impossible for me to share my wife
with a Burundian".
Yes,
she was raped by six men and he said "how can I be the seventh?"
So that's the taboo.
Yes,
it's just unacceptable.
There is also a lot of pressure from the community.
Even if you know that your wife has been raped, forced, then still on a man
there is a lot of pressure from the community like "you cannot stay with
your wife".
They make your life really hard and in the end of the film, one of the men
says: "If you stay with your raped wife, then you don't have rest, so if
you want to have sort of peace and rest, then just chase her
away."
People
shout across the street "he is the one who shares his wife with
soldiers" and those kinds of things. So it is so deep in the communities.
It is not accepted that women have been raped, because they blame it on the
women and that is very difficult for them.
Actually a reason why we made this film about what happens after women have
been raped is because the hell is actually starting after they've already been
through so much.
An issue that comes through in the film by exploring this
issue of rape is the role of women or how women are seen in society in
Women
are seen as third class citizens. They have little rights, but on the other
hand, and that's [also the case] in a lot of other places in
The women do the work, but on the other hand there are just less rights.
For
example the activist in our film - she is not saying it in our film, but she
explained to us that when she was young she already understood the difference,
like "OK, why are my brothers allowed to go to school, and why am I not
allowed to go to school?"
There are loads of things. I think Chantal, the activist, she, from a
young age, sort of stood up.
And she understood that there
were certain things about women that they couldn't...
Yes, and she fought against it. That's probably why she is an
activist now and she is doing really amazing work.
So
there are women who are slowly, or there are women groups who are fighting for
their rights and I think that's a really good thing. But it goes really, really
slow.
A lot of people who want to watch this film, will probably think
'it is a subject that I feel very strongly about but can I watch this for an
hour?' The thing that surprised me watching it actually is, it's horrifying and
it's shocking, but it's also in a strange way empowering.
|
Husbands get a lot of the pressure from the community to abandon their
raped wives |
Yes,
we find it very important to give a fair chance. They are not victims, because
they are fighting hard for it, and the people everywhere in DR Congo, even
though they've been through so much, it is unbelievable how much strength and
pride they have, and that they still continue after everything that has
happened.
So we did not want to portray them as victims.
because they are survivors ...
Yeah,
as survivors and they are fighters as well.
There is one simple question, when anyone reads about this subject
and you consider that between 40, 000 and 80,000 women, I mean according to
official statistics, 70,000 or more have been raped, from ages as young as
three, sometimes even younger all the way through. Why? Why do you think
rape which is described as a weapon, why are all parties of this war doing it?
Is there an answer to that?
It
is very difficult. We have been working on that topic for quite a few years and
we also have the same questions. Why are the rapes going on? Why constantly?
Why so many different [perpetrators] like Congolese rebel groups, the
national army, groups from
It
is one big mess with all these different militias and a lot of victims don't
even know who raped them - was it a Burundian, or a Congolese?
And then there is also the thing, why are they using so much violence, it's not
only rape, it's
...it's savage, it is unspeakable...
What
they do, they use rape, and that is something clearly visible in DR Congo, they
use it to destroy, because if you rape a woman, then you destroy her family and
the whole community built around it.
That's it, right, that's the knock on effect. As you said, the
hell begins after the rape, not just for the women, but also for families but
the whole community.
|
Sexual violence against women continues to blight Congolese society |
Yes,
in a way in DR Congo you know that if you rape a woman, she is going to be
abandoned, because you break everything, you destroy.
I
can understand why maybe foreign rebel groups are using it, because it is not
their people, not their country.
But
it is difficult to understand why the Congolese rebel groups are also doing it
and that there are so many different rebel groups active.
But the impression you get from the nature of the conflict in
Eastern Congo is that as Westerners one thinks of wars between different ethnic
and national groups, but people and societies have moved around between the
borders of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi, DR Congo. So there is an intimacy -
that's the other thing that comes through from this film, it's an
incredibly intimate film, but because the effects of rape are so intimate.
Would you say that that's fair?
Yeah,
I think so, and I think that's very strong also in the film, that you are
really there, that you get sort of a bond with the people in the film - with
the victims, but also with the husbands.
The film deals with a lot of very graphic testimony, one of the
harrowing moments is when the young girl describes what's happened to her and
she looks down, and her voice is breaking. Was it difficult to get all the
women in your film to talk so graphically, because it doesn't spare any details
at all?
No,
first we really got a bond with them and trust and then we kept interviews very
small, very intimate as they were still afraid to tell this in the open. So we
just did it in their small houses and made sure there were no other people
listening in.
And it surprised me, but Congolese are story-tellers. So they have it just in
them that they can tell a story, but that they could tell it in so much detail
was also for us a big surprise. But for the filmmaking, for their story and
to bring it out it helped a lot that they were so open.
One of the things that runs through your film and what you have
done subsequent to it is this one word of therapy. It's an easy word to use,
but you do get the sense whether it is Chantal, your key character, or the
other women, when you've taken the film around, there is a sense in which
people are getting this out in the open. As you say fighting the silence.
I
think for all the characters, especially for the victims, but also for the
little girl that was raped, for them to tell their story that is a sort of
therapy, also for the couples.
While we were filming them and when we have been back to DR Congo to show them
the film afterwards, and you could see that by letting us film their stories,
there was more understanding between the two of them for example.
So I think talking helps, but in places like the eastern part of DR Congo,
there are no social workers were you can come every week for an hour and tell
your story.
And it's difficult to tell their story in a community because of the taboo.
So to have someone, whether it's two filmmakers like yourselves,
to act as a sort of a means to letting that out.
It
was much easier for them to tell the story to us, than if it was maybe a
Congolese for example.
So you think being Dutch, being non-Congolese actually was a
definite plus?
Yes,
because there is not a lot of trust between Congolese. Because you are always
afraid that maybe someone will tell it to another one and then your story is
out.
And there is a lot of jealousy between different people in the village, so it
was much easier.
We also had a male cameraman and a lot of people asked us "is that
smart?" But in the end, they all loved our cameraman. He was great and
because he was not Congolese they could actually tell their story.
One of the subjects that comes through in the film and one subject
that everyone who watches it wants to know is what is to be done about this
issue. The question of prosecution comes up in the film. Is that something that
is widely felt amongst the survivors of rape and something that's possible to
do given the current situation in eastern DR Congo?
|
A law against sexual violence was introduced but it is
still difficult to get rapists into jail |
The
impunity is huge and the law system is not working and there are no lawyers
really - corruption is immense.
So it is very difficult for people to get their rapists into jail.
And that is one of the biggest problems still going on and that also causes a
vibe now that it's not only rebels and soldiers raping, but also normal
civilians are raping because they see that you can get away with it.
And that's something that really has to change, but the corruption is huge so
it's a difficult thing.
And
also victims normally lost everything and it costs money and so much energy and
the court is maybe in a different town so they need to have transport. It is
almost impossible for victims to get their perpetrator
Because the structure, the system is not there at all ...
Yes, but there are, in a lot of places, more and more women activists working
on it and doing their best.
But even if a court is working they still have corruption, so if you get your
perpetrator in prison then he can pay a little bit, or his father has a good
connection with the chief of police and he is free again after a few days.
But there's no stigma attached to this - even if a whole village
knew that a guy had raped people and that news is out, it is still not a stigma
is it?
|
Some blame the women for encouraging rapists by their behaviour or
clothes |
In
some places, it also depends on [the village].
In one village it is maybe not and in another village they have a different
sort of mentality. So it's very difficult to say that.
But that's not only perpetrators of rape but just thieves in cities, because
the courts are not working, you have like the public justice, so it is also
happening. But not so clearly also about rape. And rape is mainly done by
rebels and military so they just disappear in the forest.
But is prosecution one part of an overall solution? There are many
women, many activists undertaking initiatives on many different fronts. Is that
an important part of it, or do people feel it is?
I
think it will make a difference.
One other thing, it isn't a special theme in your film I just
wanted to know why, is this whole issue of HIV as a consequence, as a byproduct
of the rape. As you say there are many consequences to being raped - social,
psychological, but also physical in terms of the damage, but also the long-term
effects through thing like HIV.
Why is it not in the film?
Our
victims didn't want to go to the hospital so we didn't have the story to follow
as well and we liked to stay close to them.
But it was also at that time, when we were filming, Medecins Sans Frontieres
that had their local hospital, they couldn't give the medicine yet.
So you could go at that point to test yourself, but as soon as you were
positive there was no medicine to cure it. And that's why there is not so many
figures yet so the medicines are not given out so why should you go and check
yourself if there's no help.
|
More women are trying to fight the silence by telling their stories
and sharing experiences |
And
people don't want to know.
It's
a huge taboo.
They'd
rather not know ... because then the stigma is even bigger.
The
war is still going on, I think most of the time you see in different places in
So the full scale of effects is not ...
The other problems are bigger.
When people are dying it can be from malaria or other diseases so most of the
time they die before they know or before you can see that they have HIV/Aids.
Being raped by six, seven men - these men have been raping women all over the
place so, and there is so much violence, so I think the impact of Aids will be
huge.