TITLE: I am Rohingya

The Rohingya is a minor Muslim ethnic group who lived in Myanmar for centuries. However, due to the racism and many other socio-political issues among the majority in Myanmar, they were declared as a stateless Bengali community who migrated to Myanmar from Bangladesh. Over one million Rohingyas live in Myanmar and they are the most persecuted people in the world who are deprived from their own land, human rights and citizenship. In recent times, the Myanmar Army started a silent genocide to forcefully evacuate them out of the country. Moreover, the system has been encouraging the Rohingya to enter Bangladesh illegally for a long time. The Myanmar Army have though covered it as a religious riot between Buddhists and Muslims but the true underlying cause is a business benefit as the land has natural resources which will be leased to the powerful countries who are friends of Myanmar. The recent wave of violence in 2017 has pushed nearly a million Rohingyas to cross the border of Myanmar in search for a safe refuge in Bangladesh. Many families have lost their beloved ones as many of them were murdered, raped, tortured due to the invasion of Myanmar Army, but the country remained silent and the Nobel Peace Prize holder Aung San Suu Kyi is under pressure and never accepted Rohingya as their own citizens and a different ethnic class from Bengali.

AUTHOR: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan (Bangladesh)

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a documentary photographer and visual artist. He is currently pursuing a Certificate of Higher Education in History of Art at the University of Oxford and enrolled for an MA in Photography at Falmouth University, UK. Hasan holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism from Ateneo de Manila University and also graduated in Film & Video Production from UBS Film School at the University of Sydney. He was nominated for many international awards and won several photographic competitions worldwide. His photographs have been published and exhibited internationally. He is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh and represented by Redux Pictures, USA.