How Muslim Women in Northern Arakan Regressed into a “Dark Age” — An Unfolding Transformation

 

Muslim Women in Northern Arakan, Then and Now (photocrd)

Refugee Woman in Bangladesh (photocrd)

A recently circulating photo series titled “Once Upon a Time” has sparked reflection by contrasting photographs of Muslim women in northern Arakan from decades ago with their present appearance. In the older black-and-white images, women appear in traditional “ein-phyit” skirts and fitted blouses, wearing thanaka with visible smiles, moving freely in public spaces much like their Arakanese neighbors. The impression from that era is one of shared community life — two faiths, one society, culturally intertwined.

The newer images, however, paint a strikingly different reality. Many women and girls in those same villages are now dressed entirely in black garments, some veiled even over their eyes behind layered mesh. The visual transformation — described as going “from color to darkness in just forty years” — has raised questions regarding how such a drastic cultural shift occurred.

The regression is often linked to changes beginning in the early 1980s, when funding and religious influence from Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries increased in northern Arakan. Scholarships, mosque-building projects, and religious outreach expanded rapidly. Young men returning from Pakistan and Medina introduced conservative religious norms — long beards for men, full-body coverings for women — increasingly treated as obligatory rather than optional. Practices that once blended Islam with local culture were condemned as incorrect or impure.

Economic incentives played a role as well. Families who dressed their daughters in full black veils reportedly received monthly rice assistance, while sending girls to regular schools was discouraged. Madrasas multiplied, while secular education for girls diminished. Women who wore flowers in their hair or girls who rode bicycles were publicly criticized. Over time, freedom gave way to pressure, and pressure evolved into restriction.

In many villages influenced by this shift today:

• A 12-year-old girl may not choose her clothing or social circle.

• Most girls complete only primary school and are seldom seen playing outdoors after prayers.

• Seeking medical care often requires permission from a male relative.

• Marriage commonly takes place soon after menarche, with little room for refusal.

The old photographs serve as documentation that Muslim women in northern Arakan once lived with visible dignity, joy, and social participation equal to those around them. They show a time when religious practice coexisted with cultural expression — without confining women behind heavy veils. The transformation into conservatism was not a gradual cultural transition, but a rapid re-shaping of identity driven by external religious influence, social pressure, and gender-based restrictions.

This reflection carries weight today: as many reminisce about the elegant past of Arakan Muslims, fewer speak of the young women whose voices have since been muted — girls whose laughter is now treated as inappropriate, whose education was replaced with religious instruction, and whose futures were determined for them. If society celebrates the beauty of the past, it must also confront the reality of the present — and acknowledge how far women have been pushed away from freedom once ordinary.

https://www.globalarakannetwork.com/post/once-upon-a-time-how-did-muslim-women-in-northern-arakan-regress-into-dark-age