Razia Sultana (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

:রাজিয়া সুলতানা; born 1973) is a

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...

lawyer who was born in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

and has won the International Women of Courage Award 2019.

Biography

Razia Sultana was born in 1973 in

Maungdaw Maungdaw (, ) is a town in Rakhine State, in the western part of Myanmar (Burma). It is the administrative seat of Maungdaw Township and Maungdaw District. Maungdaw is a town of Myanmar and borders Bangladesh. Maungdaw is 16 miles north of Buthida ...

, to a

Rohingya The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an ...

family. She grew up in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. She is working for the Rohingya people as well as other ethnic people of Myanmar. She is a lawyer, educator and human rights activist with a focus on supporting Rohingya girls and women. She has published two reports after conducting interviews with hundreds of Rohingya people, titled ''Witness to Horror'' and ''Rape by Command''. In these reports she has shared with the world about sexual violence against Rohingya girls and women by Burmese security forces. She has also contributed to ''The Killing Fields of Alethankyaw,'' which was published by Kaladan Press. Razia Sultana is working as a coordinator for the Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC) and as a director of the Arakan Rohingya National Organization's (ARNO) women's section.

Publications

* ''Witness to Horror'' * ''Rape by Command'' * ''The Killing Fields of Alethankyaw'' (Contributor)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultana, Razia Bangladeshi women lawyers 1973 births Living people Recipients of the International Women of Courage Award 21st-century Bangladeshi lawyers 21st-century women lawyers