Most were sentenced for studying the Qur’an, said researchers from the US-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, who used analysis of the files to extrapolate that hundreds of thousands of women were likely to have been detained, in total.
Another woman, Ezizgul Memet, was charged with illegally studying scripture with her mother for three days “in or around” February 1976, when she was just five or six years old.
The police files were initially published in 2022 by several media outlets, including the BBC, but this is the first time the treatment of Uyghur female religious leaders has been analysed by researchers.
Previous testimony from women confined in camps in Xinjiang revealed they have allegedly been subjected to forced sterilisation, abortion, sexual assault and marriage by the Chinese government.
Rachel Harris, professor of ethnomusicology at Soas University of London and co-author of the new report, said the ustaz (urban female leaders who embraced reformist styles of Islam coming from the Middle East in the 1980s) used religion to pursue education and participate in international trade.
The UK called on Beijing to “cease the persecution and arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and Tibetans and allow genuine freedom of religion or belief and cultural expression.”
The original article contains 652 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Most were sentenced for studying the Qur’an, said researchers from the US-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, who used analysis of the files to extrapolate that hundreds of thousands of women were likely to have been detained, in total.
Another woman, Ezizgul Memet, was charged with illegally studying scripture with her mother for three days “in or around” February 1976, when she was just five or six years old.
The police files were initially published in 2022 by several media outlets, including the BBC, but this is the first time the treatment of Uyghur female religious leaders has been analysed by researchers.
Previous testimony from women confined in camps in Xinjiang revealed they have allegedly been subjected to forced sterilisation, abortion, sexual assault and marriage by the Chinese government.
Rachel Harris, professor of ethnomusicology at Soas University of London and co-author of the new report, said the ustaz (urban female leaders who embraced reformist styles of Islam coming from the Middle East in the 1980s) used religion to pursue education and participate in international trade.
The UK called on Beijing to “cease the persecution and arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and Tibetans and allow genuine freedom of religion or belief and cultural expression.”
The original article contains 652 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!