First, They Erased Our Name, Habiburahman
First, They Erased Our Name, Habiburahman
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First, They Erased Our Name
A Rohingya Speaks

Author: Habiburahman, Andrea Reece

Narrator: Sunil Malhotra

Unabridged: 7 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/05/2019

Synopsis

“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 was three years old, the country’s military leader declared that his people, the Rohingya, were not one of the 135 recognized ethnic groups that formed the eight “national races.” He was 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 and 2017, the government intensified the 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 endured throughout his life until he escaped the country in 2000.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.

About Habiburahman

Habiburahman, known as Habib, is a Rohingya. Born in 1979 in Burma (now Myanmar), he escaped torture, persecution, and detention in his country, fleeing first to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, where he faced further discrimination and violence, and then, in December 2009, to Australia, by boat. Habib spent thirty-two months in detention centers before being released. He now lives in Melbourne. Today, he remains stateless, unable to benefit from his full human rights. Habib founded the Australian Burmese Rohingya Organization (ABRO) to advocate for his people back in Burma and for his community. He is also a translator, social worker, the support service coordinator at Refugees, Survivors, and Ex-Detainees (RISE), and the secretary of the international Rohingya organization Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO), based in the UK. The hardship and the human rights violation Habib has faced have made him both a spokesperson for his people and a target for detractors of the Rohingya cause.

About Sophie Ansel

Sophie Ansel was born in Brittany and has worked in Taiwan, the United States, Australia, Malaysia, and Thailand. In 2005 and 2006 she first went to Burma, where five years of investigation led her to collect the testimonies of hundreds of Burmese of all ethnicities and led to her first work about the subject, the film Dans l’ombre de ton sourire (2007). She has also written the testimony of Navy Soth called Les Larmes Interdites (Forbidden Tears), and the biography of Habib, a stateless young Burmese called Nous les innommables-un tabou birman.

About Andrea Reece

Andrea Reece is a translator of novels, short stories, and works of nonfiction from French and Spanish.

About Sunil Malhotra

Sunil Malhotra is the recipient of multiple Audie nominations and AudioFile Earphones Awards, as well as the American Library Association's Odyssey Honor, for his audiobook narrations. His many film, television, animation, and video game credits include Fair Game; The Legend of Korra; Dude, Where's the Party?; House; Star Wars: The Clone Wars; Blaze and the Monster Machines; Regular Show; 24; ER; Cold Case; Diablo III; and Halo: Reach.

Reviews

Goodreads review by aPriL does feral sometimes

Frankly, the issues surrounding the Rohingyas are astonishing and confusing. The social and political repression going on in Myanmar is happening to all of its minority communities, but especially the Rohingyas. Why the Burmese want to kill all those who they believe are non-Buddhists and who recent......more

Goodreads review by Sai

This book actually broke my heart like no other. It was so lyrical, somewhat like a fictional story but it’s not fiction, it’s all real, it’s all what the Rohingya people have been enduring for decades.......more

Quotes

“The book is written in simple language and tells the story without embellishment. There is no need for flourishes; it is relentless.” The Guardian (London)

“Written in a simple style appropriate to the childhood it records, the memoir is a devastating testimony of persecution.” Irish Times (Dublin)

“Habiburahman is a vivid storyteller…It is a book that should be read the world over until the Rohingyas get justice.” Irish Examiner (Cork)

“A harrowing first-hand account of the decades of prejudice, intimidation and violence that shaped the life of a Rohingya growing up in Burma.” Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“The gripping, chilling inside story of the incubation of a genocide…Habib’s moving family history emerges as a powerful and, to my knowledge, unique historical document. His compelling storytelling relates how playground prejudice against the Muslim Rohingya of Arakan escalated into pogroms, terror, and apartheid…Incredible.” Jonathan Miller, author of Rodrigo Duterte: Fire and Fury in the Philippines

“Do not be indifferent to this urgent, humane book. Read it, share it, talk about what has been happening―and in so doing safeguard the humanity of Habiburahman, the Rohingya and all asylum seekers, as well as the imperiled humanity of this country.” Maria Takolander, the Saturday Paper

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