February 24th—February 26
“We are not afraid of anything. We want our stories to be told.”
Our Standing with Rohingya Women delegation is well underway— the Nobel laureates are on the ground and with our partner, Bangladeshi women’s activist organization, Naripokkho, have visited and heard the stories of Rohingya women on the Bangladesh-Burma border firsthand.
The delegation officially began Saturday with an orientation session at the Naripokkho offices to learn more about the situation of Rohingya refugees. We also met with Rohingya teacher, lawyer, and researcher, Razia Sultana, to discuss her newly launched report “Rape by Command: Sexual violence as a weapon against the Rohingya”.
Yesterday was the sixth-month anniversary of the latest cycle of military violence in Burma. Nobel Peace Laureates, Tawakkol Karman and Mairead Maguire visited the Kutupalong and Balukhali refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar, where they heard from five Rohingya women who survived rape at the hands of the Burmese military.
“The military surrounded and burned the houses. They took all the young beautiful girls and raped them.”
Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi joined the delegation today, as they met with Commissioner for Refugees, Relief and Repatriation, Abul Kalam. In the afternoon the laureates visited the women’s spaces at the Thyankhali refugee camp to meet with Rohingya women where they were told more stories of rape, torture, and murder.
#ROHINGYAWOMEN IN THE NEWS:
Catch up on some of the background in the New York Times.
Read more about Tawakkol Karman and Mairead Maguire’s visit to refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar yesterday in the Washington Post.
Watch below, video of Tawakkol Karman and Mairead Maguire’s appeal to international community after visiting the Kutupalong refugee camp in the Dhaka Tribune.
