Female Nobel Laureates by the side of Rohingya women

THREE female Nobel Peace Laureates are in city on a weeklong trip to Bangladesh to see for themselves Rohingya women who were tortured and raped by Myanmar military before fleeing refugee camps in our country. During their visit, Iran’s Shirin Ebadi, Yemen’s Tawakkol Karman and Northern Ireland’s Mairead Maguire have planned their visit at a time when more strong voice of sanity should come to stop ethnic cleansing by Myanmar military. They will assess during their visit the violence against the Rohingya women and the refugees’ overall situation. Nobel Women’s Initiative, a platform of six female peace laureates established in 2006 has taken the move when distressed Rohingya women need their help all the more. We know they have audience world-wide and their involvement will take the issue to new height.

They are scheduled to meet government and local communities leaders, human rights organizations and diplomats to try to ascertain the challenges Rohingya women are facing. The trio will also see the role of local and international organisations providing support to the Rohingya women in the camps and elsewhere.

The Nobel Women’s Initiative, in partnership with local Bangladeshi women’s organisation, Naripokkho — is hosting the delegation to show the plight of the refugees and violence Rohingya women were subjected to. Lucky were those who arrived in Bangladesh. Many women along with their male family members perished to torture and bullets. The laureates will spend time in Dhaka and in refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar. It is sad when women Nobel Laureates are trying to stand by the Rohingya women, another laureate from Myanmar is causing most of the trouble. This is unfortunate indeed.

The initiative has also network in Myanmar women’s rights organizations. In an email Tawakkol Karman said she and her colleagues were standing “in solidarity with displaced Rohingya women and calling for Rohingya women’s voices to be heard.”

The question that begs to be asked is that who will take the Myanmar government to task for its inhuman actions. Definitely the regional powers of South and South-East Asia are not upto the task. Some powerful countries are blocking way for some others to mobilize real action in the ground to save the Rohingyas and help them return to their lost home. We are left with the voices of conscience like the Nobel Women’s Inititative to at least ensure that some light is shed on the plight of the Rohingya.

We are disturbed by the policies of the neighbors who are lending support to Myanmar military in its ethnic cleansing of the Muslims from a Buddhist majority nation. Unless the regional or world powers do something it is extremely unlikely that Myanmar will take back the Rohingyas and surely their initiative will contribute to resolve the problem.