Photojournalism nominee

The Rohingya is a minor Muslim ethnic group who lived in Myanmar for centuries. However, due to the racism and many other socio-political issues among the majority in Myanmar, they were declared as a stateless Bengali community who migrated to Myanmar from Bangladesh. Over one million Rohingyas live in Myanmar and they are the most persecuted people in the world who are deprived from their own land, human rights and citizenship. In recent times, the Myanmar Army started a silent genocide to forcefully evacuate them out of the country. Moreover, the system has been encouraging the Rohingya to enter Bangladesh illegally for a long time. The Myanmar Army have though covered it as a religious riot between Buddhists and Muslims but the true underlying cause is a business benefit as the land has natural resources which will be leased to the powerful countries who are friends of Myanmar. The recent wave of violence in 2017 has pushed nearly a million Rohingyas to cross the border of Myanmar in search for a safe refuge in Bangladesh. Many families have lost their beloved ones as many of them were murdered, raped, tortured due to the invasion of Myanmar Army, but the country remained silent and the Nobel Peace Prize holder Aung San Suu Kyi is under pressure and never accepted Rohingya as their own citizens and a different ethnic class from Bengali.

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a documentary photographer and conceptual artist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh represented by Redux Pictures, USA. Hasan holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Photojournalism from Ateneo de Manila University and also graduated in Film & Video Production from UBS Film School at the University of Sydney. He was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass, UNICEF Photo of the Year, short listed in the Ian Parry scholarship, Sony World Photography Awards in professional category, finalist in Contemporary Talents Competition organized by Foundation Francois Schneider as well as achieved several accolades in the field of photography worldwide. His work has been published in numerous international magazines and exhibited in several countries. He was commissioned for many international organizations and worked in overseas. He is currently studying Certificate in Art History, a hybrid online on-campus program at the University of Oxford.