Dhaka: Anwara Begum used to find herself busy with preparations in the days leading up to Ramadan, when it had meant stocking up on chickpeas and noodles, and making plans to distribute food for orphans and the elderly in her village in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
For the 50-year-old, the holy month had once been filled with days of cooking alongside her older daughter. They would spend hours in the kitchen making different kinds of dishes to break the fast, from steamed glutinous rice to banana bread and vermicelli dessert.
“Sharing iftar with other people as much as I could with what I had, greatly filled my mind with contentment and enjoyment at that time,” Begum told Arab News.
“That would, of course, remain the greatest memory of my life,” she said. “Recalling that pleasant time literally hurts me a lot and breaks my innocent heart into pieces.”
Begum was among more than 740,000 Rohingya who fled to neighboring Bangladesh in 2017, following a brutal military crackdown that the UN says amounted to genocide.
Life — and Ramadan — was never quite the same in the five years since she started living in the sprawling encampment in Cox’s Bazar, Begum said.
“No sooner had we arrived at the camp, everything was completely transformed into a challenge,” she said. “The injustices done to us in Myanmar forced us here into a life of poverty, unemployment and uncertainty.”
The Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslim, are facing worsening conditions, as international aid for the group has fallen since 2020. The UN World Food Program decided to cut food rations earlier this year, after its pleas for the Rohingya had not been met.
For many Rohingya, their difficult lives as refugees are even more pronounced this Ramadan.
“The meal we eat daily as iftar in the camp is neither hygienic nor healthy,” Begum said. “It is close to a dream to expect a delicious iftar. It isn’t even possible to buy what we need for a month as we are now receiving less aid compared with the months before.”
When she lived in Myanmar, Nosima Khatun said she would make luri fira, a traditional Rohingya bread made with rice flour, which her family preferred to eat with beef curry for iftar.
“I wanted to make my family happy with the utmost joy during holy Ramadan,” Khatun told Arab News. “In Ramadan, I had a great moment of joy and fulfillment that is irreplaceable with anything in life.”
Since she became a refugee in Bangladesh, those pleasant moments have become distant memories.
“I am stuck in an unprecedented situation like a bird in the cage. The dependency on rations has left me so helpless,” Khatun said.
These days, Khatun can only serve a few things for the pre-dawn meal of suhoor and iftar, such as chickpeas and dates. What little she can come up with is “not enough” for her four-member family, she said.
“Whenever I recall the old days in my homeland, I fall into the ocean of serious grief as I won’t have that time again in my life,” she said.
Tasmin Begum, 35, said her life was marred by difficulties in Myanmar, where her husband was forced to work petty jobs as employment in the public sector was off-limits for the Rohingya.
Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group. Most people from the long persecuted community were rendered stateless under the country’s 1982 Citizenship Law and had been excluded from the 2014 census.
Though celebrations and gathering in public places were not easy even during Ramadan, Begum would try to make the most of it by spending many hours in the kitchen, making a variety of steamed snacks and rice cakes, among other dishes.
“After fleeing to Bangladesh, I started to suffer the pains of refugee life,” Begum said. “Now in Ramadan, here I can have only chickpeas and puffed rice.”
The Rohingya women Arab News spoke to for this story said that they longed to return to their homes in Myanmar, fearing prolonged lives as refugees. But like so many others in their community, they want their rights guaranteed.
“There are innumerable sufferings in refugee life — no respect, no dignity to survive as a human being,” said Anwara Begum.
Khatun hopes for an immediate return to her motherland, “because I want to die in the soil of Myanmar.”
Tasmin Begum, too, has a similar wish.
“I wish I could go back to Myanmar with our rights restored as I don’t want to become a refugee for the rest of my life,” Begum said. “I don’t want to be the victim of genocide in my homeland. The only thing I want is to spend the rest of my life peacefully.” Web Desk
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