Breaking the Silence: Rohingya Women and Girls in the Sixteen Days of Activism

by Ro Maung Shwe

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh | November 25, 2025

Every year, the United Nations marks the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence as a reminder that injustice continues to shape the lives of women and girls across the world. For the Rohingya people, this truth is not an annual campaign. It is a lived reality. Violence is not a single event. It is a cycle that follows them across borders, into the refugee camps and through every attempt to rebuild life.

While the world holds awareness events and policy dialogues during these sixteen days, Rohingya women and girls continue to live with one of the most documented patterns of gender based persecution in the twenty first century.

A Crisis Defined by Identity and Gender

The Rohingya crisis is often described in terms of conflict, displacement or genocide. Yet behind these words are the gendered layers of destruction that shaped the attack on the community. In Myanmar, Rohingya women and girls were targeted because they were Rohingya, and targeted again because they were women. Rape became a weapon of war. Pregnant women were assaulted. Girls were taken, violated and abandoned. Mothers witnessed the killing of their children while being attacked themselves. None of this was accidental. It was systematic, intended to break families, memory and generational identity.

The Silent Burden Inside the Camps

Inside the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, the forms of violence have changed but the pressure has not lifted. Daily life places new burdens on women and girls.

• Domestic violence has increased in overcrowded shelters shaped by trauma and uncertainty.
• Women headed households face risks while trying to access aid.
• Girls are pushed into early and forced marriage as families struggle with fear and insecurity.
• Limited mobility prevents women from reaching education, justice or even basic health services.
• Survivors of sexual violence often remain silent, held back by cultural expectations and fear of community rejection.

The Rohingya community continues to show strength, yet the weight carried by women and girls remains immense.

Promises Without Protection

Global actors release reports, statements and commitments each year. For many Rohingya women, little changes.

• There is still no justice for the crimes committed in Rakhine State.
• There is no assurance of safety for any future repatriation.
• There is no long term solution for life in the camps.
• There is no meaningful inclusion of Rohingya women in decision making spaces.

During the Sixteen Days of Activism, many women say the world’s promises only underline their sense of being unheard.

Yet Rohingya Women Rise

Despite everything, Rohingya women remain central to the community’s resilience. They run informal learning spaces. They work as health volunteers, walking through the camps to support families. Widows raise children in the aftermath of unimaginable loss. Survivors speak in international forums even when the risks are high. Their courage continues to shape the community’s hope for the future.

A Call to the Global Community

For the Sixteen Days of Activism to matter, actions must move beyond symbolism.

1. Justice for gender based atrocities
   Perpetrators must be held accountable through international legal mechanisms. The violence against Rohingya women is a crime against humanity and cannot fade into silence.
2. Meaningful participation of Rohingya women
   Women must be included in discussions on repatriation, rights, leadership and community planning.
3. Protection and safe spaces in the camps
   Gender based violence services must be strengthened, and access to psychosocial support, legal assistance and safe shelters must be ensured.
4. Education for girls
   Education offers protection and empowerment. It is the only tool Rohingya girls are allowed to hold.
5. Long term solutions
   The world must commit to durable solutions that include voluntary, safe and dignified return or clear alternative pathways.

A Movement Beyond Borders

The Sixteen Days of Activism carries a simple message. Violence against women is not inevitable. Silence is not an option. Justice is a right. For Rohingya women and girls, these sixteen days are more than a global campaign. They are a reminder of decades of suffering and survival. They call for solidarity that goes beyond statements.

As the world wears orange in support of activism, Rohingya women continue to carry wounds that remain open. Yet within those wounds is the strength of a community that refuses to disappear.

From Awareness to Action

If the global community believes in the spirit of Orange the World, it must also believe in protecting some of the most persecuted women in the world. The Sixteen Days of Activism cannot remain a moment of awareness. It must become a commitment to justice and long awaited change.

Rohingya women are not only survivors of the past. They are the backbone of the present and the hope of the future. Their courage deserves more than sympathy. It deserves action.