The Rohingya rape survivors’ babies are quietly arriving

Bangladesh, (Hindustan Times), 15 July 2018 -  More than 10 months have passed since Myanmar’s security forces launched a sweeping campaign of rape and other brutalities against the Rohingya in the Rakhine state, and the babies conceived during those assaults have been born in camps across Bangladesh. For many of their mothers, the births have been tinged with fear — not only because the infants are reminders of the horrors they survived, but because their community often views rape as shameful, and bearing a baby conceived by Buddhists as sacrilege.  

Pictured rape victim ‘M’ lies on the floor of her shelter uninterested. With her other pregnancies she excitedly counted the days until delivery she said. this time she felt detatched from the life growing inside her.  

When the infant arrived, she said he looked nothing like her other children. In his eyes she see’ her rapists. To look at him is reliving the attacks over and over again.