Introduction

Abstract

Gendered vulnerabilities and violence are intrinsically linked with forced migration. This chapter introduces the book’s main aim, which is to examine the gendered dynamics of violence experienced by the Rohingya people, first during the conflict in the Rakhine State of Myanmar, then after their forced migration to Bangladesh. It provides a brief overview of the context and the imperative to investigate the gendered dimension of Rohingya forced migration, emphasising the nature and extent of gendered vulnerabilities and violence, both in the country of origin and in the country of destination, as a continuous process. Additionally, it delineates the methodology employed in the research conducted for this book.

Every year millions of people are forcefully displaced around the world and, in mid-2023, the number reached 110 million people (UNHCR, 2023). Various factors such as violence, conflict, war, religious or ethnic persecution, gross human rights violations, and environmental issues, including climate change, have contributed to this forced displacement or forced migration. In forced migration, individuals fall prey to various forms of violence across their country of origin, transit routes, and destination countries. The experience of violence¹—whether direct (i.e., physical injury, psychological harm, sexual violence), structural (i.e., patriarchy, poverty, intimate partner violence), cultural (i.e., the underlying logic that justifies violence such as religion, ideology) (Galtung, 1969, 1990, 1996), or symbolic (i.e. masculine domination and its recognition as ‘natural order’) (Bourdieu, 1979; Bourdieu & Wacquant, 2004)—varies based on gender and other intersectional identities.

Gendered vulnerabilities and violence, such as instances of rape, sexual assault, human trafficking, slavery, harmful traditional practices, forced marriages, early and/or multiple marriages, and honour killings, are regrettably becoming more prevalent amid large-scale conflicts and warfare, which often lead to forced migration. For example, after the onset of conflict in Ukraine, women who were displaced experienced a significantly higher incidence of gender-based violence—nearly three times more than non-displaced residents (15.2 percent compared to 5.3 percent) (Capasso et al., 2022). In some earlier conflicts, sexual violence against women was used as a tactic of war. In Rwanda, an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 women experienced rape during the three months of the genocide. In Sierra Leone (1991–2002), the figure reached approximately 60,000 women, over 40,000 in Liberia (1989–2003), up to 60,000 in the former Yugoslavia (1992–1995), and a minimum of 200,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1998 (United Nations, 2014). The effects of such violence are lasting and extend even after the end of the conflict. Psychological trauma, pregnancy resulting from rape, war children, sexually transmitted diseases, social stigma, fragmentation in social and familial ties, traumatic memories, and disruptions in livelihood are some of aftermath effects that most of the victims experience. Moreover, sexual and gender-based violence can continue, and even increase, after the conflict. This book uses a gender lens to explore the different forms of violence experienced by forced migrants such as Rohingya people, who were forcefully displaced from the Rakhine State of Myanmar to Bangladesh. In particular, it takes a closer look to explain how and why violence against the Rohingya is gendered.

The Rohingya, a primarily Muslim² minority from the Rakhine State³ of Myanmar, are the world’s largest stateless people. For nearly 50 years, the population in Rakhine State—one of the seven states in Myanmar—struggled under repressive military rule and ethno-religious tensions between the Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. Many Buddhists in Rakhine State, as well as other parts of the country, have claimed to feel threatened by the Muslim population and have been intent on forcing the Rohingya and other Muslims out of Myanmar, which they consider their exclusive ancestral land (Fortify Rights, 2014). Ultra-Buddhist nationalist groups, such as the ‘969’ movement and Ma Ba Tha (Organisation for the Protection of Race and Religion), primarily directed their religious chauvinism at Islam and Muslims. Their slogans, such as ‘Burma for the Burmans’ and ‘To be Burman is to be Buddhist’, as well as the depiction of Muslims as ‘mad dogs’, illustrate their advocacy for the protection of Buddhism from the perceived threat of Islam and the consequent expulsion of Rohingya from Myanmar (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2019; UN IIMM, 2024).⁴ These tensions have led to substantial outbreaks of violence and carefully orchestrated arson attacks in Rakhine State since 2012, directed at the Rohingya population and other Muslim communities (Fortify Rights, 2014). Human rights organisations estimate that inter-communal violence in mid-2012 displaced around 125,000 mainly Muslim people in Rakhine State (Human Rights Watch, 2013). Nevertheless, then-President Thein Sein in July 2012 suggested that the ‘only solution’ to the troubles in Rakhine State was either to send the stateless Rohingya to third countries or to contain them in UNHCR-administered camps (Brinham, 2012).

Due to the inability and unwillingness of the Myanmar authorities to address the ramifications of the 2012 violence, violence erupted again in 2013, 2016, and 2017. In Rakhine State, the Rohingya faced atrocities including murder, killings, rape, and other forms of sexual violence (Haar et al., 2019). These episodes led to the forced migration of about one million Rohingya refugees to neighbouring Bangladesh. In 2017 alone, about 700,000 Rohingya⁵ refugees fled to Bangladesh, about half of whom (around 52 percent) were women and children; one in every six Rohingya refugee households is headed by a single mother. Although, traditionally, women have been considered more empowered in Myanmar than in other Southeast Asian countries, ‘in reality, the place of women in Burmese society is more tenuous than many purport’ (McKay & Win, 2018, p. 2). The intersections of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender raise important questions when analysing extremist nationalist ideologies (e.g., ‘969’ and Ma Ba Tha) as part of a populist project that mobilises huge support from the ordinary Burmese Buddhists to construct Muslim Rohingya men, in particular, as a ‘fearsome other’ and to consequently legitimise violence against the Muslim Rohingya. Yet, the precarious Rohingya have continued to face vulnerabilities and violence in their country of ‘safe destination’, Bangladesh. Therefore, the Rohingya experienced a continuum of different forms of violence in different times and spaces. Several research projects⁶ have already taken place to explain the causes and consequences of the Rohingya crisis. Nevertheless, the structural, cultural, and symbolic forms of violence and their gendered dimensions have relatively been unexplored. In addition, research on the continuum of gendered vulnerabilities and violence experienced by the Rohingya is also scarce. This book seeks to fill that gap by exploring the gendered experiences of violence and vulnerabilities by the Rohingya in their country of origin as well as in their host country as a ‘continuum of violence’ (Cockburn, 2004; Kelly, 1987; Kostovicova et al., 2020). In doing so, it employs Galtung’s (Galtung, 1969, 1990, 1996) and Bourdieu’s (Bourdieu, 1979) conceptualisations of violence to more fully understand the violence against the Rohingya. Therefore, this book aims to unpack the gendered dimensions of the crisis by focusing on the nature and extent of gendered vulnerabilities and violence in the context of Rohingya forced migration, both in their country of origin and in their country of destination, as a continuous process.

The Research

The main aim of this book is to examine the gendered dynamics of the conflict in the Rakhine State of Myanmar and the consequent forced migration of the Rohingya to Bangladesh, with a particular focus on the different types of violence (direct, structural, cultural, and symbolic violence) experienced by the Rohingya along a continuum. Therefore, it also explores the gendered vulnerability and violence at the refugee camps in Bangladesh. When looking at the gender dimensions of the conflict and violence in the two different settings, this book attempts to understand what makes this conflict and the experiences of violence gendered and racialised. In what ways do the nationalist sentiments that are promoted speak to the efficacy of the gendered and racialised narratives in fostering conflict and violence in Rakhine? How and why are the experiences of violence in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar gendered?

To answer these questions, I conducted fieldwork in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar three times over five years. I employed qualitative research techniques to understand the conflict from the bottom up, from the position of the people in their communities and their everyday experiences. This approach allowed for greater, and ideally culturally appropriate, access to everyday life. It also facilitated a clearer understanding of how conflict and peace processes and related institutions have affected individuals, communities, and society. For this research, I recruited participants through snowball sampling. A total of 55 individuals were interviewed. In December 2018, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in both the Kutupalong Rohingya camps in Ukhia and Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. I did additional interviews with the Rohingya refugees and local communities in Cox’s Bazar in January 2022 and March 2023. I conducted several in-depth interviews with the women and men⁷ in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. I also interviewed the Imam of the local mosque, Majhi, leaders of refugee-led organisations, and Rohingya female health workers. During my visits to the camps, I had several informal conversations with many inhabitants of the camps, as well as with local people in Ukhia and Cox’s Bazar, regarding the crisis. To supplement the data collected through fieldwork, I used online newspapers (published in English), academic articles, books, and other secondary sources including published and unpublished government and non-governmental documents on Rohingya issues. A thematic analysis was applied to analyse the data.

Researching the Rohingya crisis was not an easy task on many grounds. Initially, it was difficult to get access to the camps, due mainly to the administrative restrictions from the government of Bangladesh. However, several gatekeepers, including individuals and institutions (e.g., the Centre for Peace and Justice at BRAC University) working with Rohingya issues, facilitated my access to the field. Other problems were centred around the nature of research that talks about violence, in general, and about the gendered dimensions of violence, in particular. In this regard, my female research assistant played a significant role in facilitating the access, discussion, and collection of data. Although difficult, I remained sensitive to ethical issues such as ensuring confidentiality and employing empathy while researching violence and gender (Morgan & Björkert, 2006). In this book, all the names of the respondents used are pseudonyms and all personal data were anonymised to ensure their confidentiality and safety.

Organisation of the Book

This book is structured into six chapters, each contributing to a nuanced comprehension of the complex Rohingya crisis and the gender-specific vulnerabilities inherent within scenarios of forced migration and displacement.

Chapter 1 introduced the key aim of the study, the ethnic group under consideration—the Rohingya, and the topic of gendered violence. It then provided an overview of the research design of the study and presented the research questions that guided it.

In Chap. 2, a concise analysis of different conceptualisations of violence is presented, delineating the intricate web of gender-specific vulnerabilities entwined within forced migration and displacement. This section employs an intersectional and ‘violence continuum’ approach to examine the intricate nuances of gender dynamics and violence within the refugee landscape, drawing upon Bourdieu’s and Johan Galtung’s conceptual frameworks on violence.

Chapter 3 delves into the core of the Rohingya crisis, spotlighting the watershed event of the mass exodus of forcibly displaced Rohingya to Bangladesh in 2017. Beyond simply outlining the conflict and displacement, this chapter illuminates the historical underpinnings and the spectrum of key stakeholders involved. It describes the roles played by the state, the military, the ultra-nationalist Buddhists, and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), as well as the complex interplay among these entities in Myanmar.

Chapter 4 interrogates the underlying gender-specific ideologies that allow violence to perpetuate against the Rohingya. It navigates through the labyrinth of gendered rumours, ultra-nationalism, and military and Buddhist politics in Rakhine State, revealing the prevalence of sexual violence against the Rohingya community. This chapter also reflects on gendered mobility, discrimination, and justice, as well as how they are rooted in societal and institutional structures. It analyses the dynamics and politics of intermarriage, reproduction, and Rohingya motherhood. Finally, it unravels the construction of the Rohingya men as the ‘Monstrous Other’ who is perceived as an existential threat to Buddhism.

Chapter 5 focuses on the multidimensional gendered vulnerabilities that besiege the Rohingya populace within the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar. This segment scrutinises issues such as societal shaming, pervasive ignorance, psychological distress, and the endemic prevalence of domestic violence within the Rohingya community, illustrating how and why they are gendered. It expounds upon the prevalence and rationales behind multiple marriages and child marriages, alongside the multifaceted challenges pertaining to personal hygiene and psychological trauma. It then considers the issues of gendered mobility and justice in the camps in Cox’s Bazar. Moreover, it investigates the gendered dimensions of the role of ARSA, the pervasive sense of insecurity, and the perpetuation within the host community of the narrative of Rohingya men as the ‘Monstrous Other’.

The final chapter amalgamates the pivotal arguments elucidated in the book, shedding light on how gender-specific and intersectional identities unveil the vulnerabilities entrenched in the plight of the Rohingya people. It culminates by proposing potential sustainable solutions for this multifaceted crisis.