Uyghur and Tibetan Voices Project
Anonymous Uyghur (#2)
This Uyghur refugee, who now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, recounts stories about the daunting oppression his family has faced as Uyghurs living in China. One significant manifestation of the oppression was the loss of freedom to practice their religion, which was “heartbreaking” given the importance of the Muslim faith to his family. Sadly, the religious interference was only one facet of a broader loss of basic rights, which also included persistent surveillance, arbitrary violence, and long-term internments in concentration camps. These stories reveal the extreme abuses that the Uyghur community has been confronted with and which ultimately challenge the survivability of the Uyghur culture.
Oppression
"What's the most difficult thing for me if you ask, that would be how being treated like a dog…being treated like…a secondary citizen of the country…but they don't see you like as equal. They don't even see you like human, because they see you as if you're just there because they didn't just get rid of [us]…. 90-95% of the Uyghurs are not on the side of Chinese, they don't like the communism…I never liked the the morning salute to the Chinese flag or the Mao's ideology…. I was always against it because I felt the oppression first-hand."
"…they're taking the kids from kindergarten and they're forcefully training them in Chinese so they will never learn their own culture…or anything related to their religion…"
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"…they don't like united people because when people are united, they're afraid that one day they come up and they could protest. They could overthrow the government they do genuinely believe that could happen because they know they're oppressing the… Uyghurs…so that's one of the main conflicts, they don't like sense of community, community support or the united people. They never liked it. And that's the thing that they were always against…"
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Loss Of Rights
"Well, they're not being able to even fast during the Ramadan…one of the most important times for Muslims and we are majority Muslim region and they're not able to practice any religion. They're not able to go to the mosque to pray….I cannot imagine myself not freely being able to go to a mosque and like, pray the daily prayer. That's one of the most heartbreaking things. And that's what my family had to deal with every day. And there is another worst thing is here. If people want to go to your house. If the police want to go search your house they need a warrant. Over there there is no such thing called warrant. They go into people's house without permission. They go in, knock the door in the middle of the night, going in, you know, they don't care whether you're dressed, undressed, they just go in like and look check everything and God knows what they're doing in there. And if they see something valuable, they just simply take it right….they're just taking things from people randomly and they will not be able to complain…."
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"People are tracking you 24/7, which street you went in or whatever… you are not allowed to go out of the radius or the checkpoints because every street…. there would be a checkpoint…with armed police... they could beat you…as long as you are not dead…there will not be like judging or anything…"
Families Disrupted
"I can’t call [my family], they can't hear my voice. I don't know when was the last time I spoke with my family. It's very tough. Here I'm all alone. At least I'm free… even if you get here, you always think about your family there, right? As just imagine in this way you are a bird and you are flying up in the sky. You are in a cage though you are able to fly. Wherever you want, but you're in a cage, so that that's how I feel right now. Honestly, genuinely, I feel like I'm trapped in this cage, and even though I can fly, even though I can see everywhere, but I'm not comfortable at all."
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"And it always saddens me because it's one of the worst crimes separating family from their kids, right? I mean, I'm not even committing any crime. I'm just working hard right trying to make a living and trying to make my parents proud….studying all the time…they should be helping me to communicate with my family…"
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"It's gotten even worse [since 2017]…insanely worse…. getting out of control basically…and when people complain, they will just be either under house arrest or they just take them to internment camps…. And when both the parents are taken to concentration camps, they take the kid to the government facility and they will be trained like the Chinese…and they will never be able to learn who their parents are…"
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Violence and Fear
"The most hypocritical thing is they've been denying that concentration camps, how can it be possible if my uncle stayed there for four years…. I never heard his voice for four years my dad told me….he was taken…and after four years, when he's out, he can't even speak to anybody."
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"We're about to [be] extinct…we're about to disappear from the face of the earth because we had more than 30 million population and now Chinese are claiming like there are less than 10 million Uyghurs. If you lock up millions of people like that of course [that will happen]… and [also] we're targeted to do…forced abortions. My mom experienced that, I remember that once she was taken….if you are pregnant and then you already have two children, you will not be able to give birth to that child. They will, even if they are born, they will kill that baby in the hospital like they choked that baby. They hold their breath and the baby is dead…. this had happened so many years and the doctors, they don't want to do that, but they have to…if you want to keep your job…and on top of that [they] will take you…it's like creating assassins out of doctors…"
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"What does he do? 18 year old kid. He goes back and he [goes to jail] for absolutely no crime. That upsets me because they forced an 18 year old kid to come back by threatening his mom, they're like we're going to torture your mom…"
How Can We Help?
"But I would say the strongest support would be if there is any bill..by the governement… waiting to pass…. call your senators and let them know that…this is really happening and it would be nice to …help that bill pass."