New Book “A Chance to Breathe”
Features Rarely-Seen Photography and Poetry from Rohingya Refugees
Rohingya
artists from Myanmar document life in one of the world’s largest refugee
camps
|
|
|
Washington,
D.C. (August 23, 2022) — A new photography book by three
ethnic-Rohingya artists from Myanmar will be published on August
25, five years after the Myanmar military-led genocidal attacks on
Rohingya that forced more than 700,000 to flee their indigenous homeland,
triggering international outcry. The book is available today for pre-order.
“A Chance to Breathe,” published with support from media organization Doha Debates and human rights organization Fortify Rights, is a new book of exclusive
photography and poetry by three Rohingya refugees living in one of the
world’s largest refugee camps located in Cox’s Bazar District,
Bangladesh. The book is published by FotoEvidence, a leading publishing house dedicated to
documentary photography focused on human rights and social and ecological
justice.
|
|
Book
cover, A
Chance To Breathe, published by FotoEvidence, 2022.
|
|
|
“A
Chance to Breathe” features the work of Omal Khair, Dil Kayas, and Azimul Hasson,
three survivors of genocide who were forced from their homes in Rakhine
State during the Myanmar-military-led “clearance operations” of 2017.
Beginning on August 25, 2017, the Myanmar military razed hundreds of
Rohingya villages in Rakhine State, Myanmar and killed and raped untold
numbers of men, women, and children. The U.S. and other governments, U.N.
officials, and nongovernmental organizations determined the attacks to be
genocide.
For decades, Myanmar authorities have denied the existence of the
Rohingya, forbidding them from owning smartphones, cameras, or otherwise
documenting their lives. Today, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh face
similar restrictions on their fundamental freedoms, making this new book
an especially rare glimpse into the daily lives of Rohingya
refugees and genocide survivors.
In 2018, Fortify Rights, in partnership with Doha Debates, began
providing on-the-ground photography and social-media training for these
three young refugees. Azimul Hasson, 20, dreams of pursuing higher
education; Omal Khair, 22, believes that empowered women are agents of
change; and Dil Kayas, 28, a young mother of three, has a strong passion
for photography.
Equipped with smartphones, the photographers sought to document their
lives and engage the outside world by offering an intimate look at
Rohingya life.
|
|
A self
portrait by the photographers. ©Omal Khair, Dil Kayas
and Azimul Hasson, 2022
|
|
|
Omal
Khair, co-author of the book, said: “I hope, when you see
this photo book that you will come to know the Rohingya’s daily life and
see their suffering…We must do this to end the Rohingya refugee life and
daily suffering.”
Dil Kayas,
another co-author, said: “I am very thankful to [the project] because our
Rohingya photos and Rohingya history will now be published to the world.
I hope to keep uploading photos to Instagram so our Rohingya history
doesn’t disappear.”
Omal Khair, Dil Kayas, and Azimul Hasson have amassed thousands of
followers online, and in 2021, the trio, along with Fortify Rights and
Doha Debates, won a Shorty Award in recognition of their
work. They were also featured in the 2021 film “Exodus,” directed by Fortify Rights Senior Multimedia
Specialist Taimoor Sobhan, which follows the three photographers through
their training and offers a look into their lives in Cox’s Bazar.
Amjad Atallah,
Doha Debates’ managing director, said, “This new book of compelling
photography and poetry offers a unique look at the challenges faced by
Rohingya refugees and, most importantly, hope for the future. Doha
Debates is honored to partner with Fortify Rights and FotoEvidence to
release this important book to the public, and we congratulate Omal
Khair, Dil Kayas, and Azimul Hasson for their achievements in bringing
this work to life.”
Matthew Smith,
co-founder and CEO of Fortify Rights, said: “This book is a beautiful
testament to Rohingya freedom. It shows what Rohingya artists can do when
they can exercise their right to freedom of expression. Our team is
honored to have worked on this project with Omal Khair, Dil Kayas, Azimul
Hasson, and everyone at Doha Debates and FotoEvidence.”
Svetlana Bachevanova,
co-founder and director of FotoEvidence, said: “‘A Chance to
Breathe' fulfills FotoEvidence’s mission to support photographers
documenting humanitarian crises, social injustice and the denial of
rights. These three young photographers, living in the world’s largest
refugee settlement, have created a document that belongs in the
canon of humanist photography. We are honored to publish the work of Omal
Khair, Dil Kayas, and Azimul Hasson.”
Featured in the book are a collection of original poems as well as images
capturing moments in the daily lives of refugees in camps in Cox’s Bazar
District as they play sports, prepare food, read Burmese inside the
camp's learning center, and receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
Other photographs depict more subtly or overtly devastating scenes: a
young man praying for his deceased parents in the camp’s graveyard;
makeshift shelters destroyed by heavy monsoon rains; and residents
selling goods on the streets after Bangladeshi camp authorities shut down
and demolished their shops and markets.
Omal Khair, Dil Kayas, and Azimul Hasson also document the fires that
swept the camp in spring 2021, burning thousands of shelters and killing
hundreds of refugees.
The book’s final images contain a rare self-portrait of the three photographers,
as well as artwork by the photographers calling for basic human rights
for the Rohingya.
The trio continues to document life in the refugee camps in Bangladesh,
posting photographs regularly on Instagram at @dilkayas, @omal_khair, and @azimulhass.
The European release of “A Chance to Breathe” is scheduled for
September 2022 at the Visa Pour L’Image festival for
photojournalism. The book can be pre-ordered online through
FotoEvidence All of the proceeds from sales of the book will go
directly to the Rohingya community.
|
|
About Doha Debates
Doha
Debates believes the world will be a better place if we make room to
listen to and understand all sides of an issue and seek consensus
together. As divisions on social, geopolitical, scientific and other
issues become more entrenched, people retreat into echo chambers and
refuse to listen to a spectrum of perspectives. We believe that positive,
meaningful change only happens when we build bridges among a diversity of
viewpoints.
Even on the most complex and divisive problems, with the right tools,
empathy, and determination, we can learn from each other and walk away
with a more robust and nuanced understanding of an issue. Inspired by
Majlis-style debates, which creates a welcoming space for discussion of
diverse views, we engage with young people from every region and country
who are invested in solving urgent global issues. Through our programming
and content, Doha Debates provides intellectual and practical tools to
empower a new generation of leaders who can bridge divides and resolve
differences.
|
|
About Fortify Rights
Fortify
Rights is an award-winning human rights organization that works to
ensure human rights for all. We bring laws, policies, and practices
in line with human rights standards by combining three commonly separate
strategies of the international human rights movement: we (1)
investigate human rights violations; (2) engage people with power
on potential solutions; and (3) strengthen human rights defenders
and communities through technical support. We are a team of human
rights defenders who believe in the influence of evidence-based
research, the power of strategic truth telling, and the importance
of working in close collaboration with individuals, communities, and
movements pushing for change. Our work has exposed genocide and
mass atrocity crimes, ensured justice for survivors of human
trafficking, prevented the arbitrary detention, and forced return
of refugees, and improved protections for at-risk human rights
defenders. Fortify Rights is an independent, nonprofit organization
registered in the United States and Switzerland. You can find us at www.fortifyrights.org.
|
|
About FotoEvidence
The
FotoEvidence Association is a non-profit publishing and educational
organization. Our mission is to draw attention to injustice,
oppression, and assaults on human dignity through the lens of
photographers working in the humanistic tradition. We fund and publish
the work of the FotoEvidence Book Award and the W award winners in
high-quality, hardbound photo books. FotoEvidence books focus on
the most pressing social and environmental justice issues of our
time, from genocide to global warming. They are published to expose
injustice, to create evidence, call for accountability, and to
inspire social change. To display and distribute the work of dedicated
photographers, FotoEvidence works with advocacy organizations
working in the field on the issues addressed, providing visual
resources for their work and a visual story that provides access,
evokes empathy, and moves people to action.
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment