First, They Erased Our Name: a Rohingya Speaks

I admit to knowing little and less about this region of the world and the problems the people of this region face. In reading this book, it really opened my eyes to the downright deplorable actions taken against Rohingya Muslims and the strangely blind eye the world has taken toward them. They’ve been stripped of nationality, of a home, of even the name of their people being spoken, subjected to imprisonment, torture, and death, and this was the first time I’d heard of it. What a world we live in.

The book follows Habiburahman, from his earliest memories growing up in the Rakhine province of Myanmar, to the caution and danger he faced as a child growing up Rohingya in a nation where to speak their name invited abuse, imprisonment, and worse. The boot at the back of the Rohingya’s neck presses ever harder throughout this book, until Habiburahman ends up fleeing first his home, then his region, and finally the country trying to find someplace where he wouldn’t eternally be on the run or enslaved by his own people.

This is a very sad story, told beautifully with the help of Sophie Ansel in the writing of it. That an entire culture of people can be effectively eliminated from a nation is a horrific thing to read about, but I’m very glad to have read it. Stories like this need to be read, heard, and spread.