The separation of family members combined with the deaths of nearly two million individuals marked Cambodia as country of missing and displaced people. After January, 1979, many people returned to their home villages, in part to locate missing or separated family members. Some families reunited but others remained divided. Consequently, the burden and pain of not knowing what happened to missing relatives remains an everyday part of the lives of many Cambodians. Some of the Cham Muslim women interviewed have discovered the truth about their missing relatives after years of searching. Others have yet to know for certain the fate of their loved ones.
El Rosinah was shocked when she was given information about her missing brother a few years ago. The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) located documents in their archives on her brother, Ismael Ahmad, and made copies for her to keep. Her family thought he was still pursuing Islamic studies in Egypt, and her mother fainted when she learned that her son had actually been executed at S-21 prison. It turned out that while he was studying in Egypt, he was told by word-of-mouth that he needed to return to Cambodia to help the KR revolution. The KR knew that he was studying in Egypt from members of his home village. When he arrived in Cambodia, he was ordered to Kroch Chhmar district before being sent to the S-21 prison. According to his confession document, he was executed in 1977. Rosinah did not recognize her brother’s prison photo because his left eye was swollen, presumably as a result of torture. She kept the confession, his mug shot photo numbered 25, and other related documents given to her. Those documents are living memories of
Ismael Ahmad for his family.
This book provides insider perspective on the struggle of Muslim women towards their identity under The Khmer Rouge. Farina So, from Documentation Center of Cambodia has compiled piece to piece stories of women dealing with their Islamic identity. The Hijab illustrates more than just piece of head scraft covering muslim women's head, rather it is dynamic process of negotiation and resistance of being muslim women during revolution.
The detail of book can be downloaded here
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Farina So is head of the Cham Oral History Project at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), an independent research institute in Phnom Penh established to record and preserve the history of the Khmer Rouge regime for future generations and to compile and organize information that can serve as potential evidence in a legal accounting for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. Ms. So recently completed her Master’s Degree at Ohio University, where she was the recipient of a scholarship from the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund and wrote a thesis entitled An Oral History of Cham Muslim Women in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge Regime.
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