Reports Reveal More Forced Labor, Retroactive Punishment for Religious Practice in Xinjiang

February 2, 2024 | China Digital Times

A set of reports published this week provide more detail about the brutality of repression against Uyghur women and the pervasiveness of forced labor in Xinjiang that taints global supply chains. Accompanying these revelations this week, the Chinese government imposed new measures to Sinicize religion in Xinjiang.

On Thursday, the Uyghur Human Rights Project published the report “Twenty Years for Learning the Quran: Uyghur Women and Religious Persecution,” which highlights the intersection between the denial of religious freedoms and the denial of women’s rights in Xinjiang. As the report describes, the government’s “anti-extremism” campaigns and mass incarceration have targeted hundreds of thousands of women, denying them agency and criminalizing ordinary religious activities. Many sentences were handed down retroactively, often targeting elderly women for “crimes” that occurred when they were children.

When Ezizgul was 5 years old, she studied the Quran for 3 days with her mum. 40 years later, as Beijing fully purged Uyghur or Islamic culture & history, she was setenced for 10 years in prison for those 3 days.

Anyone pretending this campaign has any legitimacy is delusional. https://t.co/imV6GWqYbs
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) February 2, 2024

➡️ Uyghur women are denied freedom of religion and belief
➡️ Religious study, religious gatherings, daily prayer, and wearing the hijab have all been explicitly criminalized
➡️ Children’s religious socialization has been criminalized
— Uyghur Human Rights Project (@UyghurProject) February 1, 2024