Around the world, people are looking to improve their quality of life. Whether that is by securing clean water access, fighting back against state violence or reducing crime, there are myriad ways in which people see something that would make their life better. And there are three major players in …
In 2020, I reached out via Facebook Messenger to a Rohingya man living in western Myanmar´s Rakhine state. I asked him about the situation there three years after the military operations against the Rohingya which caused thousands of deaths and the exodus of more than 700,000 people to Bangladesh. He …
Iran is experiencing the biggest protests and demonstrations against the regime since 2009, fuelled by the death of 22-year old Iranian-Kurdish woman Masha Amini*1 on 16 September 2022, arrested by the morality police for “improperly” wearing the hijab. Masha Amini died while in police custody after three days of coma. …
Through photography and social media, some Rohingya refugees are documenting life in Bangladesh. By definition, many of them are also activists because they advocate for human rights and want social change in Myanmar, their native country. New media and the internet have allowed them to create a networked social sphere …
Recently in Bangkok, I attended the presentation of a book and exhibition showing the work of Rohingya photographers. The creators could not be present at the event because they are refugees in Bangladesh and could not travel to Thailand. Omal Khair, Dil Kayas and Azimul Hasson, who became refugees after …
In Ghana, a fight for civil rights for LGBTQ people is playing out largely online through social media and coalescing around the hashtag #KillTheBill. After the raid of a queer community space in Accra and the arrest of 21 people in Ho, Volta Region in 2021, it became increasingly clear …
A picture in Bangladesh. Like in the romantic painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, one Rohingya boy stands on a hillock above the bamboo and tarpaulin shelters and dirt paths of a refugee camp. The kid, dressed with the traditional longyi, points to the mountains on the horizon where …
HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BRING SOCIAL CHANGE: THE SWEDISH INITIATIVE EQUALISTERS A very interesting social media- based initiative devoted to social change arose in Sweden in 2010. Its name was Rättviseförmedligen, Equalisters in English. It was a non-profit foundation and digital movement aiming to create a more democratic society by …
