"I am three years old and will have to grow up with the hostility of others. I am already an outlaw in my own country, an outlaw in the world. I am three years old, and I don't yet know that I am stateless."
Habiburahman was born in 1979 and raised in a small village in western Burma. When he is three years old, the country's military leader declares that his people, the Rohingya, are not one of the eight recognised "national races." He is left stateless in his own country.
Since 1982, millions of Rohingya have had to flee their homes as a result of extreme prejudice and persecution. In 2016, the government began a process of ethnic cleansing and over 700,000 Rohingya people were forced to cross the border into Bangladesh.
Here, for the first time, a Rohingya speaks up to expose the truth behind this global humanitarian crisis. Through the eyes of a child, we learn about the historic persecution of the Rohingya people and witness the violence Habiburahman endures throughout his life until he escapes the country in 2001.
First, They Erased Our Name is an urgent, moving memoir about what it feels like to be repressed in one's own country and a refugee in others. It gives voice to the voiceless.
