A distinguished Uyghur scholar who studies her people’s culture and traditions has been condemned to life in prison in China, according to a human rights charity.
A U.S. human rights group announced that an internationally renowned Uyghur folklore Rahile Dawut scholar and ethnographer who disappeared in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province nearly six years ago is serving life for damaging state security. (Source: Radio Free Asia)
Life in Prison of Uyghur Scholar, Rahile Dawut is a Significant Loss For the Uyghur People
A U.S. charity that studies Chinese human rights issues said that a notable Uyghur scholar who studies her people’s folklore and traditions was sentenced to life in prison. The San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation announced Thursday that Rahile Dawut was convicted of damaging state security in a secret trial in December 2018. The organization said Dawut’s conviction was affirmed on appeal.
John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, said that Professor Rahile Dawut’s life sentence is a sad tragedy and a significant loss for the Uyghur people as well as for everyone who values academic freedom. As a professor, Dawut established the Ethnic Minorities Folklore Research Centre at Xinjiang University. She vanished in late 2017 amid a brutal government crackdown on the Uyghurs, a Turkic-majority Muslim minority from the Xinjiang region of northwest China.
Chinese authorities kept her whereabouts and charge a secret for years. This changed this month when the Dui Hua Foundation saw a Chinese government document revealing Dawut’s life sentence. At a normal news briefing Friday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said she had “no information” about Dawut’s case but would “handle cases in accordance with the law.” In addition to giving lectures at Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania on holy Islamic sites and Uyghur culture in Xinjiang and Central Asia, Dawut produced numerous books and essays on these subjects.
She is one of nearly 400 notable academics, writers, actors, and artists jailed in Xinjiang, advocacy groups allege. Critics allege the government has targeted intellectuals to dilute or destroy Uyghur culture, language, and identity. “The most prominent Uyghur intellectuals were arrested. They were indiscriminate, said Joshua Freeman, an Academia Sinica researcher and former Dawut interpreter. I don’t think her work put her in trouble. I assume her Uyghur heritage landed her in trouble.”
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Rahile Dawut is a Guardian of Uyghur Identity
Dawut’s life in prison didn’t oppose the Chinese government, therefore her life sentence astonished Freeman and other Uyghur scholars. Chinese Communist Party member Dawut won funds and accolades from the Chinese Ministry of Culture before her detention. The news shocked Dawut’s daughter, Akeda Pulati, who urged the Chinese government to release her mother from life in prison. China tortures and persecutes Uyghurs. But her daughter didn’t expect them to be harsh enough to sentence her innocent mother to life, Pulati added. “Their cruelty is unimaginable.”
Dawut was dubbed “the hardest working person I’ve ever met” by Pulati, who revealed that her upbringing had been shaped by her mother’s perseverance in the workplace. The only things Pulati’s mother wants out of life, according to her, are to enjoy her job and career and make a positive impact on society and those in her immediate vicinity.
Brussels-based Uyghur ethnomusicologist Mukaddas Mijit stated that Dawut advised her and many other early scholars. Mijit claimed Dawut mentored a generation of notable Uyghur intellectuals worldwide and bridged global academia and Uyghur culture. Mijit stated, “She was a guardian of Uyghur identity, and that’s something the Chinese government is after. They seek to wipe everything and make Uyghurs forget their wonderful and colorful culture.
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