Arakan News Agency
Women from the Rohingya minority find refuge for themselves and their children in a forbidden place for men, in crowded refugee communities in Bangladesh called the Widow’s Camp, where they can enjoy rare moments of safety that mark the horrors of violence and displacement they have endured.
The bamboo tents, built on bamboo supports, provide shelter for dozens of widows and children fleeing the violence that has forced some 690,000 Rohingya Muslims to leave Myanmar in the direction of Bangladesh.
These women have fled atrocities described by the United Nations as “ethnic cleansing” but without their husbands forcing them to race for food and shelter in a border area of about 1 million refugees.
Among them, Sawalha Begum crossed the border on her own after her husband, who was accompanied by her only three months ago, was killed in an army attack on the village.
This woman, under the age of 18, oversees this “camp of widows” separated from the rest of the refugee camps in a densely populated and overcrowded valley.
The nearly 60 widows in the camp boast of their own private bathrooms, as well as prayers and care for dozens of children and orphans.
“Married women can set up their own homes using bamboo and tarpaulins,” says Sawalha.
“We thank God,” she says, pointing to the simple tents stacked with thin sleeping mats and cooking utensils.
One f its main tasks is to ensure that men do not approach even teenagers, from which women enjoy great freedom.
The bamboo tents, built on bamboo supports, provide shelter for dozens of widows and children fleeing the violence that has forced some 690,000 Rohingya Muslims to leave Myanmar in the direction of Bangladesh.
These women have fled atrocities described by the United Nations as “ethnic cleansing” but without their husbands forcing them to race for food and shelter in a border area of about 1 million refugees.
Among them, Sawalha Begum crossed the border on her own after her husband, who was accompanied by her only three months ago, was killed in an army attack on the village.
This woman, under the age of 18, oversees this “camp of widows” separated from the rest of the refugee camps in a densely populated and overcrowded valley.
The nearly 60 widows in the camp boast of their own private bathrooms, as well as prayers and care for dozens of children and orphans.
“Married women can set up their own homes using bamboo and tarpaulins,” says Sawalha.
“We thank God,” she says, pointing to the simple tents stacked with thin sleeping mats and cooking utensils.
One f its main tasks is to ensure that men do not approach even teenagers, from which women enjoy great freedom.
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