Prominent Uyghur scholar confirmed to be imprisoned three years after her forced disappearance

More than three years after her forced disappearance, a news report confirmed that prominent Uyghur scholar Rahile Dawut has been put in prison last week. Her daughter said she was only one of many Uyghur intellectuals that have been sentenced and imprisoned over the last few years.

Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur group reported on July 1 that a source at Xinjiang University confirmed that prominent Uyghur scholar Rahile Dawut has been put in prison. However, the source wasn’t clear about how many years has Dawut been sentenced to and where is she being detained.

Dawut’s daughter Akida Pulat said after searching for her mom’s whereabouts for more than three years, she finally knew that she has been put in prison. Even though it’s a piece of sad news for her, at least she knows something about her mom’s fate.

“I did a lot of interviews and gave a lot of talks at different universities about how my family members have been imprisoned by the Chinese government,” she said. “However, some people will question the authenticity of my talk and they would tell me that “how do you know your mother is in prison? Maybe she has died from a car accident or she has disappeared and your family members didn’t want to tell you.’”

Before she was forced into disappearance in December 2017, Dawut was the director of the Minorities Folklore Research Center at Xinjiang University and she often promotes Uyghur culture and tradition through writing articles and giving speeches.

A lot of her research projects were funded by the Chinese government and she is also a member of the Chinese Communist Party for more than 30 years.

Uyghur scholars being persecuted

Pulat said over the last few years, a large number of Uyghurs in Xinjiang were persecuted by the Chinese government, including Uyghur intellectuals like her mother.

According to a report released by the Uyghur Human Rights Project in May 2019, at least 435 Uyghur intellectuals have been sent to re-education camps in Xinjiang or been sentenced since China began to crack down on Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang in 2017.

Apart from Dawut, China’s state-run English television station CGTN broadcasted a documentary in April that accused Sattar Sawut, former director-general of the Xinjiang Education Department, and Alimjan Memtimin, former deputy director-general of the Xinjiang Education Department, to start including bloody, violent, horrific and separatist ideologies into the Uyghur textbooks for elementary and middle school students in Xinjiang.

Two former senior editors, Yalqun Rozi and Wathijan Osman were accused of being in charge of editing and proofreading the textbooks’ content. Rozi was Dawut’s college classmate and he has long been an editor at the Xinjiang Education Publishing House.

“Many Uyghur scholars have been following the Chinese government’s rules to do things but in recent years, many of them were suddenly put into prison under a lot of stigmatized crimes,” Pulat said. “Over the last few years, I wasn’t just speaking up for my mother, but I’m also speaking up for those who are in similar situations like her.”

Keep speaking up for her mother

Before Dawut disappeared, Pulat just graduated from university in the United States and she began her career as a financial analyst. She said she had never participated in any political activities before she started to speak out for her mother.

“I had only begun to work as a financial analyst for a little bit more than a year when my mother disappeared, and speaking up for her occupied a big part of my life,” she said. “I never regretted this decision, because I really want my mom to be released.”

Pulat said she thinks it’s very likely that her mother will appear in one of the forced confession videos broadcasted by China’s state-run broadcaster. “I’m worried about my mother because I don’t want her to confess to crimes that she has never committed,” she said.

“I demand the Chinese government to release my mom and let me see my mom. It’s cruel to not let a mom and a daughter see each other for more than three years and I want them to know that nothing can stop me from speaking up for my mom. I will do everything I can to get her released.”

This piece first appeared in Mandarin on DW’s Chinese website.