The CCP’s Genocide against the Uyghurs: Rooting out the “Heart and Soul” of Uyghur Communities One Woman at a Time

by Peter Tozzi

This installment of Fortis! is based on research conducted by ACWPS and an interview between ACWPS Research Fellow Peter Tozzi and Rushan Abbas. Rushan is a daughter, sister, wife, and mother—equally as important, she is a Uyghur human rights activist and founder of Campaign for Uyghurs, a non-profit organization that gives a voice to Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim, Central Asian people. She sheds light on the genocide against the Uyghurs in East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For Rushan’s courage in speaking up for those without a voice, Chinese authorities attempted to silence her in 2018 by detaining her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas. Since then, Rushan has relentlessly spoken out for her sister and has amplified her advocacy for Uyghur rights through giving speeches to various audiences around the world, publishing reports, collaborating with kindred organizations, and testifying before U.S. Congress. More information about Rushan and Campaign for Uyghurs can be found here.

Rushan testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (Photo Credit - Campaign for Uyghurs)

Uyghur women are the “heart and soul” of their communities. They are their families’ primary caretakers, teachers, “emotional anchors,” and role models for their children. They are peacekeepers, serving as the connective tissue between family members, and between each family within the larger Uyghur community. Uyghur women cultivate communities of hope. These communities are predicated on social cohesion, faithful adherence to religious practices, and ultimately, the bearing of children and the passing on of tradition.

However, the CCP mandates a society without hope; Beijing’s rulers have placed over 1 million Uyghurs in some 380 internment camps. In and out of the camps, the CCP stifles Uyghur population growth with forced abortions and sterilizations, subjects Uyghur women to brutal rapes, and tears the family apart by carrying out family separation campaigns, embedding party-state agents within homes, and enforcing Uyghur-Han interethnic marriages. The CCP intends to root out the “heart and soul” of Uyghur communities one woman at a time.

Uyghur Women: Peacekeepers and Protectors of Culture

According to Rushan, women “serve as a bond between the family and the society.” Women are often “community mobilizers, rallying support for initiatives that will benefit the community and keep the community safe” and contain a “higher affinity towards empathy and towards nurturing.” Uyghur women are essential for the continuation of “[Uyghur] culture, the peace of the family, and the morale of the community.”

For Uyghurs, the home is a sacred place: families share meals, pray together, and convene with extended family members and neighbors. It had been one of the last places that truly felt safe; that is, until the CCP started assigning party-state agents to spy on households (more about that in a moment). Uyghur women play a critical role in raising their families. They instill a cognizance of core Islamic teachings and a feeling of cultural pride within their children. Religion is an “integral part” of Uyghur identity.

For Rushan, “protecting […] faith equates to safeguarding the rich tapestry of history […].” As Uyghur men pray at the mosques, Uyghur women gather within each other’s homes to pray and read the Quran, bringing their own children along with them, especially in the rural areas of East Turkistan.

The People’s War on Uyghur Women

In 2014, the CCP declared its “People’s War on Terror,” and began associating population growth with “religious extremism” a year later. While the CCP targets both men and women alike, women are “the key to the genocide.” The CCP views the existence of Uyghur women as a threat; their roles as mothers, wives, and educators delegitimizes the CCP’s desires for total control. Therefore, the CCP’s genocide of Uyghur women is a “double persecution”—a persecution of sex and faith.

Over 1 million Uyghurs are detained in internment camps. (Photo Credit- NBC News)

The CCP and State-Sponsored Violence: Forced Abortions, Sterilizations, & Rape

With a targeted vengeance, Xi Jinping has ordered the “root and branch” destruction of the Uyghur people. He has also called upon CCP officials and internment guards to show “no mercy” toward the Uyghurs. Indeed, the CCP’s genocide is merciless: the party-state egregiously inflicts state-sponsored violence against Uyghur women through forced abortions, painful insertions of intrauterine devices (IUDs), chemical sterilizations via long-lasting injectable contraceptives such as Depo-Provera, and systematic rape.

The CCP’s state-sponsored violence has negatively affected Uyghur population growth. Dr. Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, estimated that “natural population growth rates fell by 84 percent in the two largest Uyghur prefectures between 2015 and 2018.” Dr. Zenz also estimated that population growth rates were “trending near or below zero” in southern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Similarly, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute discovered a “48.7 percent decline in birthrates in ethnic minority areas” of East Turkistan between 2017 and 2019.

Dr. Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. (Photo Credit - New Lines Institute)

Furthermore, internment guards systematically rape Uyghur women. Testimonies from Uyghur women reveal the horrors they encountered in the camps. Mihrigul Tursun is scarred by memories of guards dragging her cellmates into their offices and raping them. She can still hear their screams for help. Seared into the mind and body of Tursunay Ziawudun are the incessant beatings to the stomach, gang-rapes, and torturous electrocutions to her genitalia.

These campaigns of state-sponsored violence are intended to traumatize, demoralize, and break Uyghur women into submission. The inflicted violence causes “intergenerational trauma,” hurting not only the present generation, but subsequent generations too. Through state-sponsored violence, the CCP attempts to root out the “heart and soul” of Uyghur communities one woman at a time.

Mihrigul Tursun was detained in an internment camp after returning to East Turkistan from Egypt. (Photo Credit - NewsWeek)

Tursunay Ziawudun was detained for nine months. (Photo Credit - BBC)

Tearing Families Apart: Family Separation

The family has always been the enemy of the CCP. Under Mao, the family was a hindrance to the chairman’s aspirations for a communist China. Under Xi, an intact Uyghur family limits the party-state’s total control of hearts, minds, and souls. Thus, the CCP must break families apart, tearing wife from husband, mother from child, and sibling from sibling.

There are several pretexts for family separation. If a Uyghur woman is caught teaching her children about Islam in the comfort of her own home, she may be given lengthy internment sentences. Article 37 of the 2015 Religious Affairs Regulations in Xinjiang outlaws religious practice among minors. If a Uyghur woman removes an IUD that had been inserted to prevent her from having more children, she will be arrested, reprimanded, and forced to undergo a painful procedure to re-insert the IUD.

A propagandistic mural painted by the CCP showing that religious practice among minors is illegal. (Photo Credit - BBC)

Family separation aims to destroy the marital bond between wife and husband. Even more agonizing is the separation between mother and child. At an advocacy training workshop that Rushan’s Campaign for Uyghurs held in September of last year, French psychologist Marine Mazel explained that the CCP’s forced separations “simulate the extreme trauma that a child feels when being separated from their mother at birth.” The CCP intends to break the emotional and physical connection between mother and child. Through family separation, the CCP attempts to root out the “heart and soul” of Uyghur communities one woman at a time.

Tearing Families Apart: Embedding and Forced Marriages

Imagine one day, a stranger knocks on your door and announces he has been assigned to live with you and your family for an indefinite period of time. It could be days, weeks, months, or years. You must accept him into your household. This may seem absurd, but it is an uncomfortable reality for many Uyghur families. Since 2018, the CCP has embedded party-state agents, or “Becoming Family relatives”, into households. These “relatives” eat and sleep with Uyghur families, closely scrutinizing every move, word, and thought of each family member. Under close surveillance, agents make sure that families only speak Mandarin, and do not call upon the name of “Allah,” hold religious gatherings, or criticize the Chinese party-state.

Uyghur women are also targeted through forced “Uyghur-Han intermarriage” campaigns, which began in 2014. Since 2018, these forced interethnic marriages have increased. “Imagine having to marry someone under force that does not share the same values as you […]” said Rushan. “Women will no longer be able to live out their lives according to their values, and will not be able to pass their traditions or beliefs down to their children.” The CCP intends to dilute Uyghur culture and population by “Sinicizing” Uyghurs, thus recreating them in the party-state’s own image. Through embedding and forced marriages, the CCP attempts to root out the “heart and soul” of Uyghur communities one woman at a time.

The Path Forward: A Tale of Hope

The current Uyghur plight is indeed a tragedy. The ongoing genocide is indicative of the sort of dim, totalitarian, and brutal future that Beijing’s rulers envision for the Uyghurs.

Yet, there is hope. Women like Rushan, Tursunay, and Mihrigul have courageously told their stories. They continue to tell their stories—even under intimidation, like when the party state “disappeared” Rushan’s sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas in 2018. Many more women have yet to tell their stories.

Now, it is up to us to listen to the testimonies of Uyghur women, those who valiantly put on full display, the “heart and soul” of their communities.

Rushan Abbas pictured with her husband, Abdulhakim Idris, at a screening event of Rushan’s film, In Search of My Sister, in Taipei. (Photo Credit - Peter Tozzi)

Peter Tozzi is a research fellow for the American Council on Women Peace and Security. He is a graduate student at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan.