User:RO MOHAMMOD ZUBAIR

Zubair Mohammed

Zubair, a Rohingya boy who would turn 18 in exactly one month, is a classic example. He remembers from his time when he was eight years old that an old man in his community had died of illness because the Myanmar security forces did not allow him to travel to Maung Daw for better treatment. He had wanted to become a doctor since then to provide treatment to people of his ethnicity. As he grew up, he realized that discrimination against the Rohingya in Myanmar are politically constructed. He aspires to free the Rohingya people from the country’s discriminatory laws someday by becoming a politician.

Zubair is a survivor of Myanmar’s brutal military crackdown against the Rohingya in the Northern Rakhine state in August 2017. He was about to finish his matriculation when he fled to Bangladesh with his parents and seven siblings on 1 September 2017.

In one week he would complete two years in Bangladesh. Had there been no violence in Myanmar, he would have finished his matriculation at 16, which would be the standard age for a child complete high school. But in Bangladesh, his education hangs in the balance. His immediate younger sister who was studying in grade 9 in Maung Daw High School also has no place to continue her education.

Zubair however, is grateful to the people and the government of Bangladesh for saving their lives by providing shelter to the Rohingya refugees at great cost of the country’s own resources. Zubair has engaged himself with a garbage cleaning campaign by a charity movement in the refugee camp, which gives him a token monthly amount, but he says, “I'm not happy with this because my dream is to study and to free my people. I think power of education is the best solution for every refugee not just for Rohingya.”

If Zubair can think about freeing his people from the discriminatory laws in Myanmar with the help of education, imagine the strength of 500,000 Rohingya children – all currently below the age of 18 in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar – can bring to a movement to reclaim their rights at home. I cannot agree more with him and I hope that the Government of Bangladesh will help him and his generation to win this battle with the help of education.