Why Nobody Talks About Rohingya? I Lost My Country at 12!
Episode notes
We treat displacement as a physical act of crossing a border. But for Yasin Arafat and the one million Rohingya displaced from Myanmar, displacement is archival, psychological, and generational. It is a system that attempts to steal a people's continuity and their ability to imagine a future.
In this episode of Builders of the Broken Bazaar, Dr. Tabish Zaman is joined by Yasin Arafat, a human rights advocate who spent five years in the refugee camps of Bangladesh after fleeing the 2017 crackdown in Myanmar. Yasin dismantles the "victim" label, reframing the Rohingya experience not just through the lens of suffering, but through the lens of enormous resilience and leadership.
Together, they discuss the emotional weight of being defined as a "number," the profound impact of education on reclaiming human rights, and why the international community often practices a "selective empathy" that leaves millions in permanent limbo.
This is a conversation about memory as resistance. Because when a system tries to erase a community, remaining visible is the most radical act of all.
🎙 “Refugees shouldn't only be seen by what they escape from, but also for what they are capable of becoming.”
👉 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildersofthebrokenbazaar
Host: Dr. Tabish Zaman Guest: Yasin Arafat (Human Rights Activist & NGO Expert) Editor: Liam Gadsby. Research & Impact Officer: Mohammad Alauthman