Kaladan Press- Like countless other young Arakanese women of marriageable age, 24 year old Nuru Begum wants to get married. But, she had to flee from her homeland to Bangladesh to make it possible.

That’s because her father is not rich enough to pay the sizeable bribes required by the military junta’s State Peace and Development Council to secure permission for a Rohingya to marry in Arakan State, since the imposition of marriage restrictions on the Muslim minority several years ago.

Like Nuru Begum, many Rohingya women 18 to 30 are finding it difficult to get married in Arakan. Almost every household has between two and four girls who remain unmarried.

It is also difficult for them to find good jobs. They cook food in their homes and others make fishing nets

“My father Jamal Hussain is a woodcutter. He takes firewood from the mountain to the market and gets 1,000 Kyats after selling it,” Nuru said in a recent interview.

“I lived with my father, two elder brothers and three younger sisters in Maungdaw Township,” she said, but did not mention the name of the village because her parents live there.

“At the end of October, 2009, I fled to Bangladesh from Burma as I could not get married. This year, I was chosen for marriage by a boy from my village. But Burma’s border security force, Nasaka arrested my father alleging that I had married Abul Kasim without permission. My father was taken to the camp by Nasaka personnel and severely beaten up. Later, they released him after taking a bribe of Kyat 200, 000,” she said.

“Soon after this incident I left my homeland and loving parents, including my sisters. The conditions are terrible in Burma.”

“I have never heard that marriage is banned in any (other) community. But, the military has imposed the law on marriage of Rohingya women,” she said. “Women over the age of 18 cannot get married without permission of the military regime.”

She also said, “My elder brother also fled to Bangladesh from Burma because of the military’s persecution. Not only my brothers but many youths fled to Bangladesh.”

“I crossed the Naff River by a row boat from Maung Nee Para of Maungdaw Township. The boat owner took Kyat 6,000 from me. After crossing Naff River, I spent one night in my relative’s house in Shapuri Dip. The next day, I contacted my brother and came to the makeshift camp of Kutupalong where he lives,” she added.

“I am very sad. It makes me cry because my life is being destroyed day by day and I look like an old woman going past marriageable age. Nobody will be interested in marrying me. So, I always think and there is no sleep in my eyes,” she said.

“Actually, my father is poor, I have no option. Those who have a lot of money can marry off their daughter after giving huge bribes to Nasaka.”

She said she wants to be able to stay as a Rohingya citizen in Arakan State, without restrictions on marriage, on movement and without forced labor, religious persecution, arbitrary arrest and extortion.

Shafiqa Begum, 19, daughter of Amir Hussain, belonging to Tamir of Buthidaung Township says, “I am grown up and I don’t see myself getting married in the future, if I stay in Burma”.

“My father is very poor and can’t afford huge bribes to Nasaka for permission to marry. My father is a daily worker selling dried fish in the local market. I fled to Bangladesh because of religious persecution. I hope that if I stay in Bangladesh, I will get married,” she said.

Another girl, thirty year old Nunu, from Maungdaw Township said, “I completed Standard X from Maungdaw high school in 2001 and am sitting at home without a job.”

Rakhine women get jobs from the government. But, Rohingya women and men don’t get jobs after completing graduation. So, educated Rohingya leave their homeland for a better life. If these people want to enter Arakan again, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) does not allow them.

Some Rohingya women leave their homeland for Bangladesh to get married. The Nasaka personnel check the lists of family members and if they don’t find a female in the house they tell the father that his daughter is married in Bangladesh. He is arrested and extorted Kyat 100,000 to 150,000 by Nasaka personnel.

“I think about my future and what will happen. Every house has three to five girls over marriageable age,” one father said.

“We the two communities, Buddhist and Rohingya, have been living in Burma for a long time. But, the Buddhist community can marry without permission of the SPDC. The Rohingya community needs permission from SPDC for marrying,” he added.

In his report on the Rohingya People in Arakan State, Dr. Habib Siddqui says the Government has permitted only three marriages per year per village in the primary Rohingya townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, in northern Arakan State, since 1988.

Later the Government extended this edict to other townships of the Arakan. In today’s Myanmar, imposition of restriction on marriage between Rohingya couples has further intensified, resulting in human rights violations. For example, not a single marriage contract was allowed in May 2005. Without huge sums of bribe money, which most Rohingyas can not afford, permission to get married is impossible.

Yet, even after such payments, thousands of applications for permission to get married remain pending in Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships.

And, the situation is becoming even more frightening because the SPDC Government requires that every Rohingya be registered before they marry.

Chris Lewa, of The Arakan Project, wrote in “North Arakan: an open prison for the Rohingya”:

“In the late 1990s, a local order was issued in North Arakan, applying exclusively to the Muslim population, requiring couples planning to marry to obtain official permission from the local authorities – usually the Nasaka, Burma’s Border Security Force. Marriage authorizations are granted on the payment of fees and bribes and can take up to several years to obtain. This is beyond the means of the poorest. This local order also prohibits any cohabitation or sexual contact outside wedlock. It is not backed by any domestic legislation but breaching it can lead to prosecution, punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment.”

It also mentions that in 2005, as the Nasaka was reshuffled following the ousting of General Khin Nyunt, marriage authorizations were completely suspended for several months. When they restarted issuing them in late 2005, additional conditions were attached including the stipulation that couples have to sign an undertaking not to have more than two children. The amount of bribes and time involved in securing a marriage permit keeps increasing year after year.

“In Burma's remote west, young men and women are subject to a form of discrimination, considered harsh, even for the military regime in this country. They are banned from getting married,” the report of the Inter Press Service says.

''Violence against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan is a way of life,'' Human Rights Watch (HRW) declared in a July 2002 report. ''As opposed to other parts of Burma, in Arakan, the violence against Muslims is carried out systematically by the Burmese Army,'' it added.

“I wish to get married freely in my homeland, northern Arakan, but, when will we get the right to do it, so many Rohingya women who wish to can get married easily,” said Nuru Begum.