Episode: KPN 26-05-2026

Bangladesh Opens First Rohingya Heritage Center to Preserve Culture and Identity

Bangladesh has opened the first heritage center dedicated to preserving the history, identity, and cultural heritage of the Rohingya people inside the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, where more than one million displaced Rohingyas have been living for years after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

The newly established Rohang Heritage Center, funded by Bangladeshi authorities in late February, is located inside Camp 6 in Cox’s Bazar district. Housed in a modest bamboo structure, the center contains hundreds of historical items, including photographs, maps, official documents, books, newspaper clippings, and audio recordings aimed at preserving Rohingya language and history.

Officials and organizers say the initiative is designed to help younger generations of Rohingyas reconnect with their ethnic identity and cultural roots after years of displacement and statelessness.

“In total, more than 200 items are currently displayed at the heritage center,” Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mizanur Rahman told Arab News.

“The materials include old newspaper clippings, books on Rohingya history, and historical documents that Rohingyas managed to carry with them while fleeing to Bangladesh,” he said.

The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, have faced decades of persecution and discrimination. Although the community lived in the region for centuries, Myanmar stripped most Rohingyas of citizenship rights in the 1980s under the controversial 1982 Citizenship Law.

Since then, waves of Rohingya refugees have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, including approximately 700,000 people who escaped a brutal military crackdown in 2017 that the United Nations later described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Today, nearly 1.3 million Rohingya refugees are living in overcrowded camps across Cox’s Bazar, where access to education, employment, and long-term opportunities remains limited.

Repeated attempts by Bangladesh and the United Nations to initiate large-scale repatriation to Myanmar have failed due to ongoing insecurity and political instability in Myanmar.

The situation has deteriorated further since Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, while renewed fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State since 2024 has further complicated prospects for safe return.

Despite uncertainty surrounding repatriation, Bangladeshi authorities say preserving Rohingya heritage remains an important part of preparing future generations for eventual return to their homeland.

“We want the younger generation to reconnect with their ethnicity, culture, and the history of Arakan,” Rahman said.

“Many Rohingya children born or raised in the camps know very little about their homeland, their historical identity, or the political history of Myanmar.”

The center is operated by Rohingya volunteers alongside Camp 6 administrator Gazi Shariful Hasan, who initiated the project.

“This is the first initiative of its kind in the refugee camps,” Hasan said.

According to Hasan, one of the center’s main objectives is to preserve official documents issued by Myanmar authorities before 1989 that explicitly identified the community as “Rohingya.”

“We collected civil documents issued before 1989, before their citizenship rights were effectively removed,” Hasan said.

Following Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law — which recognized 135 official ethnic groups but excluded the Rohingya — references to the Rohingya identity gradually disappeared from state records and publications. In later years, authorities increasingly referred to the community as “Bengali Muslims.”

The heritage center also highlights the historical role of educated and politically influential Rohingyas in Myanmar’s national history.

“There were Rohingya members of parliament before 1980,” Hasan said. “No government would allow foreigners to serve in parliament, which clearly indicates that the Myanmar government once recognized the Rohingya as part of the country.”

Organizers say the center also seeks to preserve the intellectual, religious, and architectural history of the Rohingya community — much of which has been destroyed or erased during decades of conflict and military operations.

Among the exhibits are biographies of prominent Rohingya Islamic scholars and photographs of 25 mosques built in Rakhine State during the early 19th century. Many of the mosques have since been destroyed, but organizers say the photographs preserve an important historical record of Rohingya heritage.

Hasan said the initiative aims to help younger Rohingyas understand that their community has a long cultural and political history in Myanmar.

“We want the younger generation to know that they have a significant historical and political legacy,” he said.

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