The documentary about Devi Khadka in Nepal showed me why victims’ voices are central to transitional justice. Devi was a victim of sexual violence during the Nepalese Civil War. She was raped when she was 17 years old by members of the Nepalese Royal Army. Her brother was a senior Maoist rebel leader, and the perpetrators used sexual violence against her as a way to obtain information and psychologically harm him. She described how several people raped her, and after a certain point, she stopped counting. The perpetrators told her that if they raped her, it would make her brother angry and that she would eventually commit suicide and die. Their violence was not only an attempt to extract information but also a way to destroy her emotionally and use her suffering as a weapon against her family.

After this experience, Devi struggled for years. For two years, she could not recover from what happened to her. Later, she made the decision to join the Maoist rebels herself. She went underground and became involved in the women’s section of the movement. Her story is complicated because she was both a victim of violence and later an active participant in a political movement. This shows that victims should not be viewed only through the lens of suffering. They also have agency, make choices, and can become actors who influence transitional justice processes.

During the peace process, Maoist leader Prachanda supported the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, while Girija Prasad Koirala, who was Prime Minister at the time, was also involved in Nepal’s political transition. Devi later became an activist who fought for recognition of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. Throughout this journey, she faced threats and pressure. However, she said that the threats decreased after she publicly forgave those who harmed her.

One of the most powerful ideas from Devi was that a person can escape from a specific traumatic event, but they cannot escape a culture that protects perpetrators. She challenged the silence surrounding sexual violence and argued that justice requires changing the social structures that allow perpetrators to avoid accountability.

Devi began collecting testimonies from other survivors because she realized that many women experienced similar violence but remained invisible. Only around 314 cases of conflict-related sexual violence were registered and investigated, if I remember correctly, while the actual number of victims was believed to be much higher. According to Devi, the real number could have been more than five times greater because many women never reported what happened to them. Fear, stigma, shame, and social pressure prevented many survivors from speaking.

These women were also not recognized as a separate category of victims of conflict. They were not given meaningful legal recognition or adequate reparations. Their suffering continued even after the war ended. Some survivors told Devi that their husbands left them, hid their children from them, or treated them differently because of the stigma connected to sexual violence. Their dignity was taken away not only by the perpetrators but also by society’s reaction afterward.

While listening to other survivors’ stories, Devi herself became a bridge between individual experiences and collective memory. Some women approached her directly because they wanted someone to listen to them. One example was Komrat Hislia. In 1997, she was detained for a month. When she later shared her story with Maoist representatives, they made her experience public and organized a press conference. However, she explained in the documentary that she was not in the right state of mind at that moment and that she did not want her story to become public in that way. Although the intention may have been to raise awareness, the decision also exposed her to new suffering.

After her story became public, everyone knew what had happened to her. Her name became associated with rape wherever she went. For two years after that incident, she wanted to die because of the shame and pain imposed on her by society. Her experience shows that transitional justice must be careful not only about recognizing victims but also about respecting their choices, privacy, and dignity.

At one point, Devi realized that after many years had passed, if she and other survivors did not speak, nobody else would. This motivated her to continue collecting stories. However, she also faced a difficult question: by sharing other women’s experiences, could she make their lives more complicated if they were trying to remain anonymous? This shows the ethical challenges within transitional justice work. Giving victims a voice is important, but that voice must always respect their agency and consent.

One of the most beautiful moments in the documentary was when Devi sang a song about sharing the same sky, earth, and pain. For me, this represented the connection between survivors who experienced different forms of suffering but shared similar struggles. It showed that transitional justice is not only about individual cases; it is also about collective memory and solidarity.

Although what happened to Devi was extremely painful, what I found powerful was that she transformed her experience into a voice for others. She did not allow her identity to remain only that of a victim. She became an activist who fought for recognition and justice for many women who were ignored.

After some years, Devi married a politician who was also connected to the Maoist movement. Today, she has two children. In the documentary her daughter shared her feelings about growing up with parents who were involved in politics. She explained that sometimes her parents were emotionally distant and placed their anger and frustrations on her. This part particularly resonated with me because I am also an older daughter. I understood her feelings because, in many families, the first child often experiences and carries a lot of emotional responsibility. When something happens between parents, the first person who worries, feels the tension, and tries to manage the situation is often the eldest child. There is an expectation to be more responsible, more mature, and more conscious, especially toward younger siblings.

At the same time I appreciated Devi’s reflection on parenting and gender expectations. She said that a daughter’s success should not depend on how well she performs household chores. This challenges a deeply rooted patriarchal idea that women and daughters should be valued primarily through domestic responsibilities. A person’s worth should not be determined by how well they fulfill traditional gender roles. So she does not require her child to do it.

Overall, Devi Katka’s story demonstrates why transitional justice must center victims’ experiences. Justice is not only about investigating crimes, punishing perpetrators, or creating official institutions. It is also about recognition, memory, dignity, and allowing survivors to define what justice means for them. Victims are not passive recipients of justice; they are active participants/knowledge producers who shape the transitional justice process itself. Without listening to their voices, transitional justice remains incomplete.

Another part of Devi’s story that deeply affected me was the experience of displacement and motherhood during the conflict. At one point, the Nepal Royal Army bombed her house using helicopters. During that time, her daughter was with her aunt and was only around nine months old. In order to keep her child safe, Devi left her daughter with her aunt for several years, until she was around two or three years old. However, despite making this decision to protect her child, she carried a strong feeling of guilt. She felt that she was selfish and that she was not a good mother because she was separated from her daughter.

I could understand Devi’s feelings because this reminded me of experiences in my own country. There were many parents from my parents’ generation who, in order to earn a living and create better opportunities for their children, left their young children in villages with grandparents for several years while they moved to cities for work. Many of those children later felt emotionally distant or disappointed because they experienced separation from their parents at a young age. However, we also have to understand the circumstances that our parents’ generation experienced. They were making difficult choices not because they did not love their children, but because they were trying to provide a better future under difficult economic conditions. Devi’s story reminded me that sometimes survival requires painful decisions, and people should not judge those decisions without understanding the context.

The documentary also highlighted the enormous scale of violence during the Nepalese Civil War. I learned that around 63,718 war crimes were registered, but only a small number of cases were actually investigated. Many cases remained unreported, and even among reported cases, many were not properly investigated. This demonstrates the gap between the existence of transitional justice mechanisms and the actual delivery of justice to victims.

One survivor shared that after experiencing sexual violence, she moved far away and later married a man who did not initially know about her past. However, someone told him about what had happened to her, and he abandoned her. Neighbors reportedly questioned why he would stay with “a fallen woman.” At the time she was left, she was pregnant with a two-month-old baby. She could not afford rent or food, and she had no access to reparations or meaningful support. This shows that victims of conflict-related sexual violence often experience not only violence from perpetrators but also continued social injustice afterward.

What I understood from these stories is that while these events happened during my childhood, when I was around three years old and living a peaceful life in my own country, people on the other side of the world were experiencing unimaginable suffering. This made me feel deeply grateful that I was born in a country that did not experience war and large-scale conflict. At the same time, it reminded me that peace and security are not universal experiences. While some children grow up without fear of violence, others grow up in environments shaped by war and trauma.

The stories of sexual violence were especially difficult to hear because of the ages of the victims. Some women were only 12, 13, or 17 years old when they experienced violence. One survivor shared that both she and her daughter were raped while they were blindfolded. Women were targeted by both sides of the conflict, showing that sexual violence was not limited to one group. Another woman described being raped by dozens of men and experiencing extreme physical and psychological suffering. These stories demonstrate why one of the first priorities of transitional justice must be the restoration of victims’ dignity.

The documentary also raised questions about the ability of institutions to respond effectively. One government official, possibly a commission secretary, admitted that they did not have enough experience to deal with cases of this nature. This reflects a broader challenge: institutions may exist, but they may lack the knowledge, sensitivity, and capacity required to address survivors’ experiences properly.

One of Devi’s most powerful observations was that people who have power often lack empathy, while people who have empathy often lack power. This reflects a central challenge in transitional justice: those who make decisions about justice are not always those who have experienced suffering themselves. Without empathy, institutions can become disconnected from victims’ realities.

Towards the end of the documentary, we saw the beautiful scenery of Nepal. For me, that peaceful landscape represented hope. Despite the violence and trauma that occurred, there is still the possibility of healing, rebuilding, and creating a different future.

I was also deeply impressed by how open Devi’s daughter was when sharing her own feelings and experiences. She openly expressed her disappointment and emotional struggles connected to growing up as the child of political figures. She questioned her mother and said that promises were made to her but were not always fulfilled. She described this as part of the experience of being a politician’s child. What stood out to me was that she did not hide her dissatisfaction or emotions. She was able to express her own perspective, even toward her mother.

Devi herself emphasized that the stories of victims were being erased from history. Because of this, she founded an organization for survivors of sexual violence called Undefeated. The documentary was directed by Subina, who works with organizations such as Al Jazeera and focused on bringing these forgotten stories to public attention.

Within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the 314 cases that were investigated were not always clearly classified as rape or conflict-related sexual violence. Many were categorized more generally as torture or other violations, which shows how the specific experiences of women survivors were often not properly recognized. Through her organization, Devi collected approximately 4,200 cases, creating an important record of experiences that might otherwise disappear.

Ram also raised an important criticism regarding the role of NGOs and international organizations. Many organizations claim to work in the name of victims, but sometimes they do so without the direct involvement of survivors themselves. This creates another challenge for transitional justice: speaking about victims is not the same as giving victims a voice. True justice requires survivors to be participants, not just subjects of research, policy, or humanitarian work.

Overall, Devi Khadka’s story demonstrates that transitional justice is not only about legal accountability or official commissions. It is about restoring dignity, recognizing erased histories, listening to survivors, and ensuring that victims themselves shape the process of justice.

You can watch the documentary here: https://www.aljazeera.com/video/witness/2025/6/19/devi-khadka-the-woman-leading-the-fight-against-wartime-sexual-violence