Policing Uyghur Women’s Religious Expression
February 2, 2015
By Greg Fay
Earlier this month, a ban on publicly wearing burqas, full-face veils and full-body coverings passed in Urumchi, the capital of the Uyghur region in China. Whereas 75% of Urumchi’s residents are ethnically Han, the legislation affects the city’s Muslim residents, notably Uyghurs, the city’s next largest ethnic group.
It is not the first time the Chinese state has targeted the practice. In August 2013, a Uyghur woman lost her housing in Urumchi for wearing a veil. Elsewhere in the region, veils have been targeted: last summer, Karamay passed a ban on head covers, beards and other Islamic symbols on buses. In April, Shayar County listed “bizarre dress” and beards on a list of behaviors to report to police; traditional Uyghur wedding celebrations were also included. In a 2013 report on religious restrictions, the DC-based Uyghur Human Rights Project documented a pattern of control over this personal aspect of Uyghur lives since 2008, with signage forbidding veils in hospitals, libraries and other public buildings. UHRP identified a coordinated campaign to control Uyghur religion and redefine traditional practice as “extremist” and illegal.
The law also occurs in a broader context of concern that China violates Uyghur women’s rights. Nearly 10 years ago, authorities instituted a program to transfer young women to work in factories in eastern China, and overseas activists expressed concerns of forced consent. Last year, China announced plans to jumpstart the labor transfer program, transferring 5,000 new workers in the next three years. Another concern for Uyghur women is forced abortion, as is forced prostitution, an issue explored in depth in a 2012 paper by Kara Abramson.
Wearing veils and burqas is not without controversy, and Islamic scholars dispute scriptural support for the practice. Debate ensued when France banned the burqa in 2011; Muslim women spoke out on both sides of the issue, and last year the European Court of Human Rights ruled against a Muslim woman who challenged the law. Just last week a controversy erupted when Michelle Obama chose not to cover her hair in Saudi Arabia; on MSNBC, Linda Sarsour, a US-based community leader, said that as a feminist Muslim, she respects the First Lady’s decision and values the freedom in the US to choose to cover her own hair for religious observation. In these cases, a public outcry and conversation has been essential to navigating this complicated issue. But in China this type of discussion is illegal. Free speech advocates are imprisoned. Religious figures like Abdukiram Abduweli who do not register with a state agency and recite government-approved sermons are also imprisoned.
When China passed this law, it did not quote Uyghurs, or feminist Muslim scholars; instead it cited a crackdown on religious extremism. The law was generated by the Standing Committee of the local legislature and approved by the Autonomous People’s Congress, predominately atheist institutions. To be a Communist Party member and a Uyghur, religious belief is forbidden and it is illegal to even enter a mosque. Underrepresentation of both women and Uyghurs in Chinese politics is well documented.
The issue of Uyghur veils is also intertwined with brutal policing. Radio Free Asia has documented numerous instances when police have lifted a woman’s veil and shot those who protested. In Maralbeshi county in April 2013, 21 people were killed in clashes after people gathered to protest a community watch group which entered a resident’s home and removed her veil. In Konasheher county in June 2014, five Uyghurs including one police officer were killed in a conflict sparked when local officials lifted a woman’s veil during a house check in her village. The same cause led to a prior incident in the same county just months earlier resulting in 16 deaths. In Henan Province’s Zhenping county in November 2012, nearly 1,000 people protested after police lifted a Uyghur girl’s veil, and 50 were injured.
The ban on head-covering in Urumchi underscores China’s hard handed approach to Uyghur religious practice, and the degree to which Uyghurs, and Uyghur women in particular, are removed from the decision-making process that affects their daily lives.
Greg Fay is the Project Manager of the Washington, DC-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, an NGO that researches and documents human rights abuses against Uyghurs. He conducted research in Urumchi on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2007-2008, and after that he worked in New York for China Labor Watch, then the Committee to Protect Journalists.