Beginning in June, two Drexel University students decided for a senior project to develop a virtual reality film that would draw on and serve as an ode to their Nepali heritage. With a team assembled to help execute their vision, they aim to give voice to the struggles women in Nepal face as they go through their monthly menstruation. Prashanna Subedi now enters his final year as a senior Film & Television student and began thinking about what would make a meaningful thesis earlier this year. He identified a desire to use the tools he had learned as a filmmaker and the resources around him to raise awareness of the harmful consequences of chhaupadi: an ancient Nepali tradition intended to be symbolically positive but at the cost of stripping women of their dignity and lives for centuries.
Subedi then joined Prasin Shrestha, a friend, fellow Nepali and Westphal College of Media Arts and Design major studying digital media, to help him get his idea off the ground. Together, they laid out the plans for a unique virtual reality based film experience that would address and inform people about the harsh realities of menstrual huts — in a format that lifts these stories off of what has commonly been documented on 2D screens, offering a new perspective.
Initially, Subedi and Shrestha bonded over a similar upbringing in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, located in the Himalayas in South Asia. They shared their experiences of growing up with female cousins and relatives who would practice some form of chhaupadi that they would find unusual or prompt them to ask questions about. For example, this would look like refraining from touching drinking water, cooking food or touching any male relatives. Chhaupadi and all its forms are fueled by the perceived idea that when a woman is menstruating, she is considered ‘unclean.’ Practicing chhaupadi has, for generations, been one of the ways Nepali communities prevent the taboo of menstruation from afflicting bad fortune, illness, famine or other curses on families. It lives under an umbrella of social fear and pressure that if the practice of chhaupadi were discontinued, bad things would be bound to befall the disobedient.
Subedi and Shrestha recall being uncomfortable living in a fog that was oblivious to what exactly chhaupadi was and all its different shades.
“But when I first learned about Chhaupadi, I was shocked to learn stories from these remote villages, where women are forced into unsafe, unhygienic, and sometimes life-threatening conditions during their periods especially when they need sanitation and care most,” shared Shrestha.
Although they had both been raised in a relatively ‘progressive’ Kathmandu, they began asking questions about what versions of chhaupadi existed beyond this bubble. They quickly discovered that what they had been exposed to secondhand in their families did not scratch the surface of what other young women were facing in more rural communities. They discovered that more extreme forms of chhaupadi involve banishing young girls into unsanitary isolated huts and other dangerous structures for days, sometimes longer, that they often feel are suffocating to their health and humanity. For days, sometimes longer, they are confined to dark, claustrophobic, poorly ventilated spaces that put many at risk of illness, animal attacks or even physical or sexual assault. Despite menstrual huts being made illegal in 2005, according to ActionAid UK, the practice persists across the country – more so within less developed areas. The film will serve as a reminder that chhaupadi is not an ancient mythical practice but continues to harmfully affect women today.
Through the film, formatted in virtual reality, viewers can expect to step into an immersive experience that leaves them inside the hut. Engulfed in a dark, hyper-sensory and realistic space, Subedi and Shrestha hope to encourage a deeper sympathy for the women forced to practice this tradition. The movie will be a hybrid between fiction and non-fiction, putting us in the shoes of the character of Priya – a 13-year-old girl from a rural village who is banished into a hut by her father and head priest who feels responsible for upholding his role and duty to the community. Furthermore, the credibility of her story will be supported by research gathered by NGOs with whom the project team has been able to get in contact. Subedi’s cross-disciplinary team has proved to be why creating this film has been going so well thus far. Around the table are brilliant ideas discussed and executed by other students in Digital Media, Film & Television, Animation & Visual Effects and more across Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, the team managed to get influential mentors involved in the project even though the VR industry is still relatively small at the moment.
Overall, Subedi, Shrestha and their team must be commended for the initiative to turn a senior thesis into a cultural, heartfelt project for good; it is a reminder of the brilliance that continues to glow in this university community. The next steps include the team anticipating taking a trip to Nepal over the winter break to continue their research. They also envision the film being shown in special screenings across Nepal and possibly becoming an interactive app on Quest. The project is set to be finalized by the end of spring.
Ultimately, the team hopes that the VR film will successfully amplify the impact of chhaupadi on women’s health and empowerment in rural Nepal in a creatively challenging way. They hope to share the stories of affected women, community leaders and local health experts to spark a deeper cultural transformation and allow conversations around the realities of chhaupadi to take up space. In this way, they hope to inspire meaningful change towards broader gender equity in Nepal.