Lost in the Fire #2 - a photo on Flickriver

            Kiyas, in his home in Negombo, Sri Lanka, holds up a photograph of his parents. The body of his father, Jamal, was seized by the Sri Lankan authorities and burned after he died during the COVID pandemic of 2020. Government officials claimed that Jamal died of COVID-19, but Kiyas remains skeptical. Between 2020 and 2021, the Sri Lankan state enforced a strict 'cremation only' policy for COVID dead, announcing that burial posed a public health risk, in spite of reassurances to the contrary by the World Health Organisation. Cremation is forbidden by the Quran, and Kiyas, who arrived in Negombo as a young Muslim refugee, ethnically cleansed out of his native Jaffna by the separatist Tamil Tigers, see the legislation as discrimination by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority nation against a religious minority. Hundreds of Muslim victims of COVID-19, including young children and babies,  were forcibly cremated before the law was suspended in February 2021, under international pressure. Even then, the authorities refused to allow families to bury their own dead, and designated a remote burial ground – Oddamavadi – in eastern Sri Lanka where burials were conducted by the military until 2022, when the government finally agreed that families of victims could conduct their own funeral arrangements. Shot in April 2024, for my book, 'Oddamavadi: the Untold Story'.
   

Taken on: April 12, 2024

Tags:

24-70mm

black and white photography

Canon

Canon Asia

Canon Sri Lanka

COVID-19

death

documentary

documentary photography

Father and son

grief

loss

minority rights

monochrome

monochrome portrait

Muslims of Sri Lanka

Oddamavadi Project

oppression

persecution

portrait photography

portraits

sadness

Sri Lanka Post navigation

photo story

photo book « less

Camera: Canon EOS R6, f/2.8, 1/80 sec, 70mm, ISO 1000 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS R6
Lens:	RF24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	70mm
ISO:	1000
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CC (Macintosh)
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