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Photojournalism: Rohingya: Rape Survivors Speak Out

  • Jamalida Begum is seen in her makeshift house that she shares with 6 other refugees on in Kutalong Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Jamalida Begum came to Bangladesh 15 days ago from Hadgudgapara village in Myanmar. 2 months ago the military came to her village, killed her husband and burned her home to the ground with everything she owned in it. The next morning the military surrounded her village. {quote}They dragged me and the other women to the yard and beat us. I was screaming and begging Allah to save me. The military screamed {quote}Where is your Allah now? He's not saving you!”” 3 men dragged her to the bush, pointed a gun at her and said ”If you resist, I'll shoot you” then took turns raping her until she lost consciousness. A few weeks after the rape, a group of foreign journalists came to her village and interviewed Jamalida and other rape victims. That night the military came to her village and cut the throat of the man who helped translate for the journalists. The soldiers went door to door with Jamalida’s photo looking for her, and neighbors ran to warn her. She ran away and for 5 days she took shelter in the bush and in different houses until she fled to Bangladesh. She says that every night she has nightmares about the Myanmar military. {quote}I have flashbacks when I hear loud noises. I've heard that the military has made big posters of my photo and they're still going door to door looking for me. I'll never be able to go back. If I go back, they'll kill me. I will never go back. Sometimes I'm scared that they'll find me here.{quote}
  • Roshida Begum, 22, poses for a photo in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.. She fled to Bangladesh shortly after the August 25th attack from Tula Toli village in Myanmar. One day the military came to her village and threw petrol bombs and set houses on fire. They randomly shot anyone they say. She fled and hid on a riverbank, where the military found her and other people. Her husband swam across and escaped. They shot the young boys and stole the jewelry the women had. “They took little children and babies and threw them into the river. Then they took us to a pond and made us kneel up to our necks in the water. A helicopter was circling overhead again and again.” she says. The military took groups of 4-5 women into houses and raped them. “My baby was 25 days old, they grabbed him from my arms and smashed him on the ground so hard, he died. The military took me and 5 other women into a house and raped us. After they were done, they slit our necks with machetes. They thought I was dead and they left and set the house on fire. I was the only one who escaped.{quote} She says. She hid in a paddy field and in a forest until she came across another woman and her daughter, and together they crossed into Bangladesh. For 8 days they walked, surviving by drinking water from the paddy fields. They took a boat into Bangladesh and she went to the MSF clinic, where she spent 18 days recovering. Her husband found her there, and when she was discharged they moved into a camp. In the attack, she lost her mother, father, brother, all together she lost 17 members of her family. {quote}In Bangladesh, sometimes I'm happy, but then I'll see an old man and miss my father, or I'll see a woman with a baby, and I'll miss my son. I can't help but cry. I want justice from the world, why did they kill my mother and father and sisters? I hope the world will give me justice. They killed my parents and relatives for no reason.”
  • Mumtaz Begum, 30, poses for a photo in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.. She fled to Bangladesh shortly after the August 25th attack from Tula Toli village in Myanmar. She fled to Bangladesh shortly after the August 25th attack. She says that one night the military attacked her village and burned homes. Everyone ran and hid but the military found them. They shot her husband in front of her, and as he lay dying she told him {quote}I have lived many years with you, if I made any mistakes, please forgive me.{quote} As he lay injured he asked the military for some water, and they responded by shooting him again, and he died. Then the military took her and 5 other women to a house, with some of their children. They started raping her and the other women and when the children screamed, they hit them in the head with machetes. They hit one of her sons, splitting his skull open, and he died. They also hit her daughter, but she survived and escaped the house. When the military was done raping her and the other women, they lit the house on fire. Mumtaz crawled through the flames as her clothes caught fire and the roof caved in, and was the only woman who managed to escape. The other 5 women burned to death. She hid in the forest until a group of people found her and carried her to the border and into Bangladesh. Mumtaz says {quote}I want justice and I want to tell the world all the things the military did. They raped and killed us. We want justice.{quote}
  • COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH - DECEMBER 01: Minwara Begum, 17, poses for a photo December 1, 2017 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.. She fled to Bangladesh shortly after the August 25th attack from Tula Toli village in Myanmar. One morning she was cooking when she heard shooting. Her mom went out to see what was happening and saw the military throwing petrol bombs on all the houses. {quote}All of us started running and the military shot us in the back. They shot me, my mom, sister, sister in law, nephew, 2 of my brothers. I lost 6 members of my family. I just kept on running. The military found us where we were hiding and took me, my sister and cousin and other women to a house. They tied our eyes and legs and hands with a black cloth and started to rape me. I don't know how many men raped me. There were 6 of us in the room and they killed 3 of the women. When they were finished they left the house and threw a petrol bomb on it. The whole house caught fire and I used the fire to burn the cloth off that was keeping my legs and hands tied. I tried to help the other women in the house escape, I tried to carry them, but I was too weak. I crawled out through the small chicken door and hid in a paddy field. The other 5 women in the house all burned to death.” For days she hid in the paddy field and forest until a group of other people came through and helped her. She spent days walking with them to the Bangladesh border, where she took a boat across to Bangladesh. She spent a week in a hospital in Bangladesh until she recovered. {quote}Here in Bangladesh, I feel so restless and worried. People say they're going to send us back to Myanmar, and once again they'll shoot and beat us there. I'm so worried.{quote} she says. {quote}They did these things to us, they raped us, I'm not afraid to talk about it. I don't feel ashamed to tell the world. I want justice, but I know the world cannot give me justice. If there's anyone who could give us justice, it would have happened a long time ago.” Human Rights groups have reported of widespread rape and sexual assault on Rohingya women and girls by Burmese security forces during the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State. According to reports, more than half of the survivors of sexual assault receiving treatment by humanitarian organizations in refugee camps at the Bangladesh border are below 18 years old. The United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said on Tuesday that Burmese security forces may be guilty of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority during a session in Geneva, adding international pressure on Myanmar to be investigated for crimes against humanity.(Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
  • Sunuara, 25, poses for a photo in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.. She fled to Bangladesh shortly after the August 25th attack from Boulibazar village in Myanmar. She says before the August 25th attack, she had a good life in Myanmar. She was wealthy, she had 42 cows, 2 cars, and rice paddy fields. One day the military attacked her village and soldiers came to her home. Her husband was staying in another village with relatives and her other children were staying with her parents. Only her 16 year old son was home with her, and in front of her eyes the military shot him in the stomach and then cut off his head with a machete. Then they tied her wrists and ankles with rope to her bedposts and 9 men took turns raping her for 6 hours. She was 8 months pregnant at the time, and the military punched and kicked her stomach. She lost consciousness and when she woke up, her husband and brother found her. For 6 days they carried her to the border while she drifted in and out of consciousness. They crossed into Bangladesh where she gave birth at a hospital, but the baby died a day later.
  • Dildar Begum, 30, poses for a photo in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.. She fled to Bangladesh shortly after the August 25th attack from Tula Toli village in Myanmar. She says that one day the military came and opened fired on her village and stormed into her house. They took her husband out of the house and to the riverbank and shot him. Then they came back into her house and grabbed her baby from her arms and stabbed him in the head. They killed another one of her children by cutting his throat, and another by beating her over the head with a rifle. 2 military held her arms while another raped her. They then beat her and she pretended to be dead. When they left, they set her house on fire. Her 10 year old daughter, Nurkalima, was severely injured when the military beat her over the head with the blades of machetes, but she helped her mom crawl past the burning bodies of her children and out of the burning house. For 5 days she hid in the hills and when the military left, she went back to Tula Toli on her way to the Bangladesh border. All that was left of her village was smoke and ask where houses used to be. There were bodies everywhere, so many that they were uncountable. She came across some men who carried her for two days to the border, where they were able to cross into Bangladesh by boat. {quote}I don't see any future for me here in Bangladesh. My husband is dead, who will earn money for me and my daughter? I want justice. My kids were killed, I want justice for them.{quote} she says.
  • Nurjahan is seen in her makeshift house that she shares with 6 other refugees in Kutalong Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Nurjahan, who came to Bangladesh 15 days ago, is from Nerebil village in Myanmar. She says her life in the village was happy until 2 months ago when the military attacked her village. 5 soldiers came to her house and tied her eyes with a scarf. 2 soldiers took turns raping her in front of her daughter., After 15 minutes she lost consciousness, and when she woke up they were gone and her young daughter was crying beside her. A few days later her husband was killed by the military, and she got word that the military had murdered a man who worked as a translator for foreign journalists interviewing rape survivors, and that they were looking for one of the survivors who dared to speak on camera. She decided it was time to flee to Bangladesh. She hid in another village for 3 days until she made her way to the Naf river which separates Myanmar from Bangladesh, and paid a boat to take her across, where she made her way to Kutalapalong refugee camp. {quote}I lived in Burma for 31 years but I never saw this sort of thing before. The past three months things have become horrible. I still talk to my family in Myanmar all the time. They told me that the military came again today and set my uncle's beard on fire.{quote} she says {quote}When I close my eyes at night to go to sleep I become terrified that the military will come again. I haven't slept well since I came here.{quote}
  • Fareza becomes emotional as she talks about being raped by the Myanmar military in her makeshift house that she shares with 6 other refugees in BaluKali Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Fareza, 17, came to Bangladesh 3 days ago from Shilkhali village in Myanmar. She describes a happy life in Myanmar until 4 months ago when the military began attacking and harassing people in her village. Last Monday, January 16, 2017, she says that a group of soldiers attacked her home and dragged her and her family out into the front yard and beat them with their fists and the butt of their guns. They groped her everywhere and dragged her back into her house where one soldier raped her until she lost consciousness. She woke up bleeding and decided to flee to Bangladesh, where she made her way to Balu Kali refugee camp. She is 6 months pregnant and has not been able to make contact with her husband back in Myanmar. {quote}For 4 months back in Myanmar I lived in a constant state of fear. At least here in Bangladesh I can sleep peacefully.{quote}
  • Nojiba is seen in her makeshift house that she shares with 14 other refugees in Kutalong Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Nojiba came to Bangladesh 2 months ago from Delpara village in Myanmar. She describes a happy life living in Myanmar until 3 months ago when the military suddenly started coming to her village, beating, killing and harassing people. {quote}I felt scared, I prayed and read the Koran, hoping to feel better. I lived in a constant state of fear.{quote} Nojiba says {quote}The day before I fled to Bangladesh the military came again to our village. They found the place in the bush where I was hiding with other women and girls. They took the young girls into nearby houses and beat and raped them. I could hear their screams. One soldier put a gun to my head and said {quote}Let's go{quote}. I started screaming and fighting back and 3 men dragged me to a room in a nearby house. They held a gun to my head and two soldiers took turns raping me for an hour.{quote} The next day she and her family decided it was time to flee to Bangladesh. They had to walk all day to the Naf river that separates Myanmar from Bangladesh. {quote}My whole body hurt. I thought that I couldn't keep walking, I felt weak.{quote} They paid a boatman to help them cross the river and they finally made it to Kutapalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. {quote}We don't have enough to eat here, but at least we can sleep well and it's safe enough that my children can leave the house.{quote} She has been getting mental health counseling from Doctors Without Border and says that {quote}I want to move past my sorrows.{quote}
  • Yasmin poses for a photo on the floor of her home in Balu Kali refugee camp is seen in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. 1 week ago she escaped from her home in the Naine Chong Village in Myanmar after the Myanmar military attacked her village. The military broke into her home, took her husband away, then 4 soldiers took turns raping her. She escaped and hid in the hills for 7 days before she were able to escape to Bangladesh. She had to pay 30,000 Myanmar Kyat (about $22) to a boatman smuggler to take her across the Naf river into Bangladesh. She still hasn't heard from her husband and has no idea if he is alive or dead.
  • Jamalida is seen in her makeshift house that she shares with 4 other refugees in Kutalong Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Jamalida, who is 16 years old, came to Bangladesh 1 month ago from Shilkhali village in Myanmar. She says that one day in December the military moved into her village and started occupying the mosque and beating or killing whoever came in. {quote}One day they attacked our home. I wasn't able to flee in time and they caught me and tied my hands and legs with rope. For 3 hours, 4 soldiers took turns raping me until I lost consciousness.{quote} When she woke up she fled to Bangladesh, where she made her way to Kutalapong refugee camp. {quote}I never had peace in Burma and this last incident was horrible. Here, I feel peace. I can sleep well here, I can go outside safely. In Burma, I couldn't go outside and I wasn't safe in my home. We don't have enough food here, but at least we have peace.{quote} she says {quote}Every night when I sleep I have nightmares and I relive the rape again”
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