Ramadan is the holy month during which Muslims try to share greater love and affection.
The Rohingya Muslims living in Cox’s Bazar's camps find it painful—when they gather to have an iftar meal—as their memories haunt them, reports UNB.
“We used to have iftar and offer prayers together with our family members and relatives. Now, we have become detached from our homeland and beloved ones. Having iftar with them is merely a memory now,” Rafiq Alam said.
“We just had water for iftar during Ramadan last year. Now, there is no scarcity for the iftar meal, but a feeling of sadness grips us as we have not been able to meet our relatives—for the last two years—after being displaced from our homeland in Mongdu under Rakhaine State,” Rohingya man Lalu Mia said.
They said they all lost their mothers because Myanmar's soldiers killed their mothers during widespread persecution against Rohingyas. Every year, during iftar, the Rohingyas think of their mothers who used to provide them with delicious, homemade iftar items.
“Rohingya people were provided with various iftar items ahead of Ramadan,” Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC) Md AbulKalam said.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing iftar items—oil, lentil, vermicelli, onion, and garlic—among the Rohingyas under an e-voucher programme, he said.
