29 of her relatives are detained, disappeared, dead, or still serving lengthy prison sentences. She tells her—and their—story to “Bitter Winter.”
Buwajir Allavedi was everyone’s friend. Mother of four children, she never strayed far from the village of her birth during the course of her 44 years, spending her days laboring in the fields, planting crops, tending sheep, and being a good neighbour. Her five times daily prayers were devout, and her ankle-length clothes and headscarf reflected her piety.
But her familiar routine and that of her family were shattered one day in 2017 when she disappeared. Her husband Hudavedi Ömer, then 49, also vanished at the same time, and the younger children were billeted with grandparents. The couple were initially detained for interrogation and later it emerged that an extra-judicial court had sentenced them both to 10 years in jail.
Hudavedi died in prison two years ago aged 54. The family was denied access to his body, and there was no Muslim funeral.
Zuhre Sultan, Buwajir’s younger sister, was heartbroken by this news when it eventually trickled down through the Uyghur exile rumor mill, and she blames the Chinese state for what she describes as his “murder.” She has been watching the events unfold in her homeland with horror since 2017. She has witnessed from her exile in Türkiye, where she came with her husband in 2014, the disappearance of family members one by one and their illegal sentencing for “crimes” unspecified. “We never hear directly that they have been arrested and rarely know why,” she told “Bitter Winter” from her home in Istanbul. “Sometimes we don’t hear for years and rely on friends of friends or TikTok videos for messages to reach us.”
She says the ache of not knowing and the pain of hearing snippets of bad news second or third hand is unbearable. “We are completely powerless to do anything, and the injustice eats away at us constantly,” she said. “We never know what tragedy will hit us next.”
Zuhre, who shares a large extended family with her husband, has lost count of the numbers but estimates that around 29 of their family members disappeared in 2017 and at least 15 that she knows of were later sentenced to lengthy jail terms. These are the ones she has heard about; but they could be the tip of the iceberg, she said. The family heard in 2021 and 2022 that 14 had been released from so-called “re-education” camps or shorter prison sentences, but 13 of the other 15 are still detained. Two of the 15 have already died in detention, including her husband’s older cousin Abdugupur Sultanni, who passed away in custody at 65, two years ago, halfway through a lengthy jail term.
Since all contact was severed by the Chinese State in 2017, expatriate Uyghurs have been unable to speak to their relatives and friends directly. “Even if we could contact them, we are reluctant to risk their safety,” she said, noting that Uyghurs in her homeland have been imprisoned simply because they once visited Türkiye or have relatives there.
Her sister’s son Abduhalik Eziz, now 35, disappeared in 2017, and her daughter Bumeryem, now 30, and her husband Abdukerim Mamut were detained for a period and were later understood to have been sentenced to 25 years and 10 years respectively. Their children were left with Abdukerim’s elderly mother.
Hudavedi’s younger brother Mohammed Eli Ömer, now 37, an Arabic translator, was hunted down to Lanzhou in inner China and returned to Xinjiang to face “trial” where he was given 10 years. His wife meanwhile had escaped to Türkiye where she now lives, daily wondering what has become of her husband.
The catalogue of those unaccounted for includes Zuhre’s older brother’s two sons, whose fate was not known until 2020. The youngest, Abduvahid, quiet and even tempered, had opened a small bazar stall in the capital Urumqi selling the famous hand made knives from their hometown Yangizar, not far from Kashgar at the furthest western edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert. He was recalled by the local police to his hometown in 2010 and arrested in 2017. His membership of a local gym was portrayed in court as training for insurrection and he was sentenced to 10 years.
His brother Abdurazak Huseyin, now 34, was working on his father’s land, but was nevertheless arrested in 2017 and sent to jail for 10 years.
Zuhre’s cousin Abdushukur Ömer, now 50, and his wife Buhilich Sawut were convicted for the “crime” of having seven children and punished with 10 years in jail. Two of their six boys were also sentenced to 10 years, with the other children taken in by an aunt. “They were just living their normal lives,” said Zuhre. “Do you see this kind of thing happening anywhere else in the world?”
Abdushukur’s boys, Abdusupur Abdughupur, now 34, and Abdurahman Memtimen were both sentenced to 10 years. Abdusupur owned a shop in Urumqi but was recalled to his village in 2017 to face arrest and 10 years imprisonment. Abdurahman, now 34, who grew up in the large extended family in the same village where they all played as children and partied together celebrating the Uyghur traditional milestones of life is now seven years into a 10-year sentence. His wife, now living with her mother-in-law, is working their land, and also forced to labour for free for the government in the mountainous areas, flattening and breaking up the stony ground. “With most of the young and healthy men in prison, only women and the elderly are left to do the back breaking work of tilling the fields,” said Zuhre.
At one point, to escape draconian family planning laws most enforced in the Uyghur heartland of southern East Turkistan, the entire extended family moved north to the capital Urumqi where with the benefit of an out of town registration they could fly under the radar for a number of years until new legislation required all unregistered Uyghurs to return to their place of birth.
She wants all the disappeared to be named. “These are real people with hopes and dreams of their own,” she said. “These have been stolen from them by the Chinese state that has robbed them of a future.”
Abdu Kayam Abdushukur, now 25, the son of one of Zuhre’s cousins was arrested in 2018/19 for reasons that are unclear. “He just disappeared one day and now we hear he is serving a 10-year sentence,” she said. Her cousins Abdukerim Mamut and Aygul Heyıt are also serving 10 years.
Four members of one family, her cousins Abdushukur Ömer, Muhammed Eli Ömer, Abdurishit Abdushukur, Abdukeyyum Abdushukur, together with their mother Buhelchem Savut were all arrested and now serving 10-year prison sentences.
She described her family members as hard working, straightforward people who kept themselves to themselves and never set out to cause trouble. She said that she cannot imagine how they are surviving prison.
“I cannot stop wondering how my sister passes her days locked in a cell. Deprived of her freedom, hungry, randomly punished, and subject to a brutal regime; it’s just unimaginable. What are the cells like? What is she wearing? How is she feeling? Does she have any friends? My questions and thoughts are endless,” said Zuhre.
Zuhre uses the freedom she has in Türkiye to campaign for the release of her family members. She is active in the Istanbul-based grassroots Concentration Camp Survivors Group that relentlessly pursues justice for relatives in the homeland. The movement, lead by Medine Nazimi, has tirelessly campaigned for the release of members’ missing relatives through United Nations channels, with the help of pro bono support from Turkish lawyers.
But the progress is frustratingly slow and disappointing, she said, explaining that the large-scale demonstrations on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara they once organized, have largely stopped. Beijing’s relentless pursuit of relatives in the homeland and threats of imprisonment against those who so far have escaped the roundups and imprisonments, has brought a dark shadow over their activities and many do not dare to protest as before. “We are all terrified that our actions could make things worse for those at home,” said Zuhre. “Some have been released from the camps or prison, but many are being rounded up again and re-sentenced. We don’t want to be responsible for more trauma for our loved ones.”
Grassroots support around the world has encouraged exiled Uyghurs. With the help of media and activist campaigns small steps have been made to challenge the might of China and to demand answers from Beijing about the fate of their families. But Zuhre often feels defeated and hopeless. “Whatever we say nothing seems to change. The Chinese state is merciless and inhuman.”
“Where are our relatives? What have they done wrong?” are the lingering questions that Zuhre lives with every day.
“We live with the hope that one day they will release them,” she said. “And we hope in God. What other hope do we have left?”