Nasir Zakaria

Nasir Zakaria was born in Buthidaung in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. His identity as a Rohingya man put him in the face of immense persecution throughout his life in Burma. When he was fourteen years old, military officials abducted him, but Zakaria luckily escaped and fled to his uncle’s home. From a nearby village, his father urged Zakaria to leave Myanmar at once and relocate to Bangladesh, where he’d be safer.

Zakaria obeyed the pleas of his father and spent the next 15 years working construction jobs in several countries. He lived and worked in Bangladesh, Malaysia, where he was arrested twice, and Thailand before his visa to come to the United States as a refugee was finally approved. In 2013, he relocated to Chicago with his wife, daughter, and an elderly Rohingya man from Malaysia, who Zakaria grew to love as his own “adopted father.”  

As one of the first Rohingya refugees to arrive in the city, Zakaria, who knew little English, experienced the difficulties of language barriers and unemployment for quite some time. He was able to find a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant downtown, but it was his subsequent job at the Rivers Casino that inspired his vision to band together with other Rohingya in the area. At the casino, he befriended a woman who was a member of a labor union and taught Zakaria the purpose and value of establishing a union to protect its workers, leading to his objective of establishing a safe haven in which Rohingya would be able to gather and embrace their identities.

Through this same friend, Zakaria was later introduced to the Zakat Foundation of America, a non-profit organization based in Chicago that provides support services and funding to Muslims in need. Upon this introduction, Zakaria proposed to them his idea of creating a place for Rohingya to prosper in America. In 2014, the foundation approved Zakaria’s plan and agreed to pay rent for one year on the space that Zakaria would elect for his center.

In April 2016, after quitting his job, Zakaria officially opened the Rohingya Culture Center in Chicago and began working full-time as its Executive Director. Exactly as he had envisioned, the center aims to provide services for the increasing numbers of Rohingya refugees in Chicago. Through this organization, and in collaboration with other employees at the center, Nasir has worked to open English-learners programs, academic and athletic groups for the youth, religious education services, and several other support groups for those who have recently arrived in the United States. 

Today, he continues his efforts in raising awareness and support for the ongoing Rohingya genocide and crisis taking place in Myanmar at the hands of its government. He has spoken with leaders around the world in an effort to gain their financial and media support.