The Atlaticby Timothy McLaughlin
Myanmar has pushed out Rohingya Muslims for decades. One of them chose to flee within his own country.
Buddhist monks and Yangon residents protest the arrival of an aid ship bringing humanitarian supplies to Rohingya Muslims in Yangon in February 2017.Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters
The reporting for this article was supported by The Masthead, The Atlantic’s membership program. Learn more.YANGON, Myanmar—By Kamal’s own admission, his family used to be “very rich.” His father owned a successful trading business, which sent fish and thanaka—a fragrant cosmetic paste made from tree bark—to be sold in neighboring Bangladesh. Their home in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Myanmar (also known as Burma), was a two-story structure in a busy quarter, and Kamal, a Muslim, taught English at a local church.
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