A journalist in Myanmar is one of the few people who has been able to stay alive amid the ongoing political crisis, and she is trying to find a way to help.
“I don’t want to be a martyr,” Nafeez Ahmed told Al Jazeera.
“I’m not going to be in a situation where I’m going to die in vain.”
It’s very hard for me to find news in Myanmar.
My family and I are living in a very unsafe house,” she said.”
We are not allowed to see anything.
There are so many checkpoints around the house.
I don’t know where I can go.
“Ahmed was living in the capital Naypyitaw with her husband and two children in February when the Myanmar military announced that the entire country would be closed for a week.
They had been living in Naypyidaw since April and had been working in Myanmar for more than two decades.
The army then announced a crackdown on media outlets that had published critical news.
Since then, many journalists have been forced to flee their homes.”
I have no way out.”
We are told to leave and we are asked to stay at the border.
I have no way out.
I have no money, I don´t have anything.”
Ahmad said she was able to make a living by working as a maid for the family’s housekeeping company, but she was forced to give up her position to join the protests against the military.
Since the crackdown, the number of journalists in the country has increased, according to Ahmed.
Her employer is also refusing to pay her wages, she said, while the army and police are using force to arrest her and her family.
Ahmed, a resident of Myanmar’s western province of Maungdaw, has worked in Myanmar’s capital Nay Pyitaw for more a decade.
The region is home to many of the countrys largest and most diverse ethnic groups, including the Rohingya Muslims and Burmese Buddhists.
The Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslims, have been subjected to violence since 2014, when the military launched a crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the region.
Ahmad has worked for the local newspaper since 2015, and said she had received hundreds of calls and messages from people all over the country who wanted to help her during the protests.
She said she has received support from other journalists as well.
“Sometimes I get messages from journalists who are very scared.
They don’t think it is safe.
But I’m not scared because I have my family,” she told Al Jazeera.
“People tell me that if I have a few days off I will be safe.”
The crackdown has left many journalists trapped and desperate.
A number of media outlets have closed and some have reported a spike in murders and disappearances of journalists.
Ahmadi said the protests have become so violent that she has been forced into hiding.
She has had to leave her family and belongings behind and is unsure what will happen to her.
“There are many people who are afraid to come out because they are afraid of the police and the military,” she added.
“It’s been very difficult for me.
But now that the situation is calm, I hope to be able to go back.”