‘I can’t speak but my photos do’: how a mute Rohingya boy talks to the world

the Guardian
Kaamil Ahmed
Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
Wed 3 Apr 2024 

In 2017, a crying Asom Khan became the face of Myanmar’s refugees. Now 15, he has discovered his own passion for photography

With no chance to learn formal sign language, Asom Khan, who is deaf and mute, uses his own version to communicate with friends and family in Bangladesh. Photograph: Kaamil Ahmed

 

His own sign language of sweeping, dramatised gestures is rarely fully understood by those outside Asom Khan’s closest friends and family but the 15-year-old is able to speak through his art and photography.

‘This is our documentary of the crisis we face’: the Rohingya smartphone photographers

The Guardian
by Kaamil Ahmed
Mon 29 Aug 2022

A photograph taken by Ro Yassin Abdumonaf  in the refugee camps of Caox's bazar, Bangladesh. Ro Yassib Abdumonaf

Refugees who have fled Myanmar describe the risks and their sense of duty – as well as joy – in recording life around them in the sprawling camps of Bangladesh .

The camera of a budget smartphone has become a way for many of the Rohingya stuck in Bangladesh’s refugee camps to tell their own stories, capturing photos of their lives in the camps, which became the world’s largest when 700,000 people fled the Myanmar military five years ago, joining 300,000 who had already sought refuge across the border.

Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui captured the people behind the story

bdnews24.com

Reuters
Published: 17 Jul 2021

A woman walks past a painting of Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui, after he was killed while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan, outside an art school in Mumbai, India, Jul 16, 2021. REUTERS

Danish Siddiqui, the Reuters journalist killed in crossfire on Friday covering the war in Afghanistan, was a largely self-taught photographer who scaled the heights of his profession while documenting wars, riots and human suffering.

A native of New Delhi, Siddiqui, 38, is survived by his wife Rike and two young children.

Bangladesh says photographer’s arrest not related to controversial transfer of Rohingyas

ARAB NEWS
SHEHAB SUMON
January 04, 2021

Rohingya refugees are seen next to eatery stalls at the housing complex of Bhashan Char island after they were relocated in Noakhali on December 30, 2020. (AFP)

• Activists say Abul Kalam was arrested while taking photographs of buses with Rohingyas on their way to a controversial island camp

DHAKA: Bangladeshi authorities on Sunday denied accusations that a Rohingya photographer in judicial custody was arrested for documenting the relocation of refugees from Cox’s Bazar to a controversial island camp in the Bay of Bengal.

Rights activists, including Bianca Jagger and Bangladeshi filmmaker Shaifur Rahman, on Friday called for the release of Abul Kalam, who they said was taking photographs of buses with Rohingya refugees on their way to the Bhasan Char island.

Call on Bangladesh authorities to release Rohingya photographer Abul Kalam

mizzima
03 January 2021

Well known Bangladeshi and international human rights figures, lawyers, academics, filmmakers, photographers, journalists and human rights focussed organisations are calling for the release of Rohingya photographer Abul Kalam.

On the morning of 28th December 2020, Abul Kalam, an award-winning photographer and Rohingya refugee, set out to take photographs of buses departing the Kutupalong camps for Bhasan Char. He was apprehended and then taken to the Camp-in-Charge in Camp 2W Block D5 of Kutupalong and subsequently to the Camp-in-Charge of Kutupalong Registered Camp. He was reportedly beaten when he was apprehended.

Calls for release of man arrested photographing transfer of Rohingyas

The Guardian

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Kaamil Ahmed
Fri 1 Jan 2021

Bangladesh authorities under pressure from rights activists including Bianca Jagger over detention of Abul Karam

Photography is not a crime’: Abul Kalam, who has been detained at a police barracks. 

 

Bangladesh authorities are facing calls to release a Rohingya man arrested while photographing the transfer of refugees to a controversial island camp this week.

Abul Kalam, 35, has been held since Monday morning when he was reportedly beaten before being taken to police barracks near the Kutupalong refugee camp, where he has lived since leaving Myanmar as a child refugee in the early 1990s.

“Photography is not a crime. Abul Kalam was taking photos of buses on their way to Bhasan Char … it is by no means a secret and has been extensively covered in the media,” said a letter calling for his release.