Portraits by Abul Kalam - Doc Sábbá Rohingya Zine

“I consider myself an artist and i want to tell the world about our unacceptable situation. I want our stories written in books so that the world can learn from our experience.”

“Our young have the same aspirations as other young people in the world. Yet we are unable to give them anything. The young are the only resource we have to take our people forward. However we are failing our young people and consequently we are failing all Rohingya.”

“In the past, I have done work with various organisations including Channel 4, Al Jazeera, Equal Rights Trust, Skype News and individual journalists, photographers and filmmakers. My work has appeared in various publications including a book cover of a monograph on Rohingya.”

“Our situation here is akin to a jail. Those who commit crimes are locked up. We are innocent and yet we are in an open-air jail. Surrounding us is barbed wire. Now also CCTV cameras. Yet we are not criminals. We have been left without rights for over 30 years. Why is this the case? What have we done?”

“I want to use my photography to remind the world that just feeding us is not enough. You can’t give us some scraps and keep us in jail. We want to go back to our land. We don’t want to stay in a foreign land forever. Our demands are clear - we want freedom and we want human rights. One day, we shall achieve these and we shall go back.”

Doc Sábbá is an Art Zine featuring creative works by Rohingya refugees including photography, paintings and words. The title, Doc Sábbá, pronounced dosh sabba, means “ten pages” in Rohingya language. “Doc Sábbá” is written in Rohingyalish. The Zine is curated by Shafiur Rahman. Follow our instagram and facebook. We are on Twitter. Lastly, you can read this - magazine style - on Yumpu.