'China involved in mass rapes, abortions of Uyghur women'

Founder and executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for Uyghurs Rushan Abbas has said that Uyghur women in east Turkistan (Xinjiang) are being treated as criminals because of their ethnicity and religion and are perceived as a threat to the Chinese state because of their reproductive abilities.

Washington: A renowned Uyghur American activist and advocate from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China has alleged that Uyghur women have been facing genocide in the hands of Chinese as they are being raped, tortured and brainwashed.

"In the modern world, Uyghur women in east Turkistan (Xinjiang) are being treated as criminals because of their ethnicity and religion. They are perceived as a threat to the Chinese state because of their reproductive abilities," Rushan Abbas, founder and executive director of the nonprofit, Campaign for Uyghurs said.

"They are facing rape, brainwashing, forced sterilization and forced abortions and other types of seemingly unimaginable abuse. Because the perpetrator of these crimes is the Chinese government, the world is silent? China is conducting genocide and where are the celebrities and the vocal feminists?" she alleged.

Abbas, who has been a campaigner for the human rights of Uyghur people and worked with members of the US Congress, further added that there is a deliberate attempt by the Chinese government to eliminate the Uyghur Muslims.

She added, "As Uyghur women are forbidden from giving births, millions of Uyghurs are languishing in concentration camps. Millions more are sent out to factory jobs, where they are functioning as literal slaves. Mothers are forcibly separated from their children who are often placed in government-run orphanages while their parents are in the concentration camps.

"Meanwhile, women are also forced into marriages with Chinese men, afraid to reject them for fear of being labeled radical Muslims by rejecting marriages with atheists", said the activist.

Rushan Abbas, who during her time at university took part in pro-democracy rallies and demonstrations against China's oppressive policies in Xinjiang, urged the international community to listen to their grievances.

She added, "We need to voice brave feminists of global society to speak out and show the same courage that they did throughout history. Chinese money has purchased the compliance of many, but mothers' hearts are not so easily swayed".

In Xinjiang, more than one and a half million people have been put up in "re-education camps", children have been removed from their homes and sent to state-administered boarding schools, and potentially millions are now enrolled in forced labour programs.

Ethnically Turkic and Muslim majority Uyghur prisoners have been forced to remove any outward sign of their faith, such as beards or hijabs, and start each day singing hymns praising the Chinese Communist Party.

Other Muslim minorities have been swept up in the repression, including Kazakhs, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and Hui.

ANI