post by rohingya_photos_and_stories

In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees have developed a deep proficiency with documentary methods and social media. Since their initial flight from state violence in 2017, small coalitions have repurposed these newly acquired technical skills to fit the evolving humanitarian and political conditions within the camps. Notably, digital literacy has allowed them to represent themselves on the world stage, both in depicting their conditions from an insider’s perspective and in engaging with international discourses on their own terms. Most recently, this has taken the form of protesting the military coup in their homeland of Myanmar from a distance. This project examines one social media post, which stands in for the larger narratives being built on such platforms. It is a study in the anonymity and voice granted to Rohingya refugees by digital platforms, and in how refugees have used these tools in Myanmar’s ongoing political crisis.