Join us for a talk by documentary photographer Greg Constantine on the persecution and the violence faced by the Rohingya over the past decade. This talk is part of UBC’s Virani Lecture series.
About the talk: Over the past six months, the Rohingya community in Burma have been subjected to what UN officials have called a ‘textbook case of ethnic cleansing’. This recent ‘scorched earth’ campaign by the Burmese authorities have pushed 700,000 Rohingya out of the country and into neighbouring Bangladesh. It is the fastest and largest humanitarian crisis in the world today. Yet, this recent wave of violence toward the Rohingya under the civilian-led government of the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi follows decades of discriminatory policies targeted toward them by successive military governments.
Documentary photographer, Greg Constantine, has been photographing the plight of the Rohingya for more than 12 years. This presentation will look at the timeline of persecution and slow violence toward the Rohingya over the past decade and will discuss the complexities related to this ongoing human rights and political crisis.
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Bio: Greg Constantine is a documentary photographer who works almost exclusively on projects that focus on human rights, injustice and inequality. He is also author of the book, Nowhere People, which documents statelessness around the world. His new project, Seven Doors, focuses on immigration detention.
Greg’s work has been featured in The Telegraph, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, The Post Magazine, Press TV,among others.
Learn more:
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, concentrated in the western state of Rakhine. Northern Rakhine state is one of the most remote, poorest, and densely populated areas of the country.
The United Nations has called the Rohingya the world’s most persecuted minority group and described the atrocities by Myanmar’s authorities as “ethnic cleansing,” whereby one group removes another ethnic or religious community through violence.
The Rohingya Muslim experience in Myanmar shows that this pattern of persecution goes back to 1948 – the year when the country achieved independence from the British.
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This event is part of the Virani Lecture Series in Islamic Studies. The Virani Lectures are designed to engage students and faculty at UBC and the greater Vancouver community on the topic of Islam. The series provides interactions designed to complement existing courses and interest in the field at the University and in the community, organized around the central theme of interest in Islam.
This event is hosted by UBC’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs.
Light lunch offered with registration. Limited seats available!
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