A Lifetime of Suffering
Gul Zahar, for whom pain had been a constant, was one of the bravest people I ever met. The head of four generations of family and the bearer of 40 years of suffering, she was in her 90s when I interviewed her. By that point, in July of 2018, Gul, a Rohingya refugee, had fled persecution in Myanmar three times in her life: first in 1978, then in 1991, and finally, in 2017. “They beat us,” Gul told us, recounting the horrors her family suffered at the hands of security forces in Myanmar over the years. “They kidnapped us. They detained us.” Gul and the family members with her at the Kutupalong Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – including her son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren – were bonded through blood and displacement. Spanning almost a century in age, all of them were residing in a single, small dwelling constructed out of bamboo and tarpaulin. When she described all the ordeals she and her relatives had faced in Rakhine State, Gul spoke haltingly. “We struggled with everyday life, earning a living, and moving around,” explained Gul before going quiet. Her eyes drifted to a far-off point, and a pained expression appeared on her face.
A Lifetime of Suffering Mohammed Jamjoom | Senior Correspondent, Al Jazeera English
278
279
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter