In a bid to bring attention to their >plight and suffering, Queen Rania of Jordan visited thousands of >Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh this week.
In posts she shared on Instagram, Queen Rania narrated details of her visit. Captioning one her posts, she wrote:
"Almost 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh in the past two months. For years, the Rohingya people in Myanmar have been victims of discrimination, injustice, and oppression. Sadly, this systematic persecution of a religious minority is taking place in full view of the world."
She also called on the international community to end the population's "suffering and safeguard their rights".
In another post, Jordan's first lady spoke of the devastation she witnessed:
"The suffering I have seen and the stories I have heard from Rohingya refugees at Kutupalong Camp are harrowing and heartbreaking."
Other Arab leaders who have been outspoken about the crisis include Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain and her husband, Dubai's >Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, who has frequently sent> emergency aid to the victims of the ongoing crisis in the past.
People thanked Queen Rania for bringing attention to the crisis
"It's not important to witness this, it's important to help them and save them from this injustice"
Many reacted to the images she shared with shock and sadness
Some hailed the queen
"A wonderful human being who deserves respect."
Others prayed for the victims of the ongoing crisis
"May God protect them."
In the past few months, >hundreds of Rohingya Muslims, including many women and children, have been killed by the Myanmar military.
The violence is ongoing in the State of Rakhine, home to some 1.1 million Rohingya people, thousands of whom have now been forced to flee to neighboring countries.
Officially, the military says the operation is intended to crack down on terrorism, but the indiscriminate killings suggest otherwise and the crisis continues to deepen.
>Speaking to Stepfeed in August, Ryan McCabe, who works with the non-profit organization Partners Relief & Development, said that "violence is definitely escalating".
He also >explained that there is "mass displacement of Rohingya fleeing towards the Bangladesh border, military firing on fleeing civilians, and armed groups on both sides."
This is by all means a genocide
The Myanmar government >does not provide the Muslim-minority community legal recognition, and instead, considers them to be illegal immigrants despite the fact that they've lived in the country for generations.
The Rohingya Muslim community lives in wide-spread poverty and faces permanent discrimination and persecution from the Buddhist-majority population.
The United Nations has equated Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya population to ethnic cleansing.
The government denies the charge but has also refused to cooperate with UN fact-finding missions.
Despite the ongoing horrors and regular atrocities perpetrated against the Muslim minority, there is little international >interest in addressing the crisis.