Quran Translated into Rohingya: Cultural Effort to Preserve Identity of Myanmar’s Suppressed Minority

Quran Translated into Rohingya: Cultural Effort to Preserve Identity of Myanmar’s Suppressed Minority
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Decades after the Rohingya were displaced from their homeland, a project to translate the Quran into their language seeks to restore their cultural and religious heritage, which Myanmar’s government has long tried to erase.

According to the Shia Waves Agency, the initiative aims to preserve the Rohingya community’s linguistic and religious identity amid ongoing displacement and cultural marginalization. Led by a PhD researcher at the International Islamic University Malaysia in collaboration with an Islamic publisher in Kuala Lumpur, the project represents a major cultural revival.

The Rohingya have faced systematic repression in Myanmar for decades. Since 2017, over 740,000 have fled to Bangladesh following widespread violence and the burning of villages. Military policies in Myanmar have denied them citizenship and even the right to education in their mother tongue.

Rohingya, a language of Indo-Aryan origin, was historically oral. Only through the efforts of Mohammed Hanif was a writing system, the Hanifi script, developed. In 2018, it was added to the Unicode international standard, marking a turning point for written Rohingya.

The project began with audio-visual translations of the Quran for those unfamiliar with written script, followed by a written version in Hanifi script. To date, five surahs have been completed. Around 2,000 copies are set to be distributed in Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Saudi Arabia.

Cultural experts regard the initiative as an unprecedented effort to safeguard the Rohingya’s language, faith, and community bonds against years of oppression.