Uyghur and Tibetan Voices Project
Anonymous Uyghur (#1)
This Uyghur refugee, who now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, shares memories from her childhood, where even as a young schoolgirl she was bullied by not only other students, but also by her teachers and the school principal, just for being Uyghur. She felt fearful for her safety, starting from an early age and that remained a constant throughout her life in China. Her family was the subject of constant surveillance, and she recounts the chilling incident when her father was brutally attacked and required several weeks of hospitalization. It is inspiring to hear the defiant determination to preserve her Ugyhur identity in spite of the challenges and loss of basic human rights that accompany that identity.
Being harassed at school
"Since I was in school, I have experienced a lot...[my my teacher and my classmates] would insult me and they would make fun of me. They would always say like you cannot do nothing...just like be like a cockroach living under us...Uyghurs are just born and raised to [be in] service and you can never get a job..."
"And when I was in elementary school...I was like, why am I not Chinese? Why are they treating me like this? Is it just because I'm Uyghur? Why am I not Chinese, so maybe if I'm Chinese, they wouldn't bully me or insult me in any ways..."
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"The principal...mentioned stay away from all the Uyghurs. There was like 1,000 or 2,000 kids and there is just few Uyghurs including me. The principal said if [any Uyghur] comes up to you, just grab whatever is around you and attack them...all [the students were] turning back and looking at me...felt very scared, we were shaking, literally. I was thinking that if they going to attack me, I will have nothing left. I wouldn't even have bones..."
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Living In Constant Fear
"They can put [us] under control...having all these armed people around us and not able to go out, not able to eat on time, not able to do anything..."
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"...few students have gone missing. They were all taken at midnight...these kids have raised their concern online and they were taken at the night and I have never heard from from them again and they were just gone..."
"[they] have cameras....by our door...in the house...in our restaurants...that's how he's been living since...
Persevering Our Identity
"It's it's not like whoever lives in China, they are Chinese. There are a bunch of different people, different ethnicity group...you cannot call all of them Chinese. They're not all Chinese, OK. That's why I'm saying I'm Uyghur..."
Suffering From Brutal Violence
"...when my dad was closing the restaurant, couple of people come from his back, put a black cloth on his head and just took him and all he remembers is he was kneeling on the ground, they would not stop beating him and every time when he passed out, they would throw ice water around him ...after two days...somebody came to...rescue my dad...and he stayed at hospital about half month."
How Can We Help?
"spread the news [about] what's happening back in home...People just think there isn't such thing happening...China are a very strong country and they are rich...living there just fine, there is nothing going wrong, but that's not right. That's not what it is. There is a lot of things actually going on for real and a lot of people are trying their best to figure out the truth...what I want to say is what is happening is real and it's maybe even more worse than what we know..."