EAST TURKISTAN WOMEN DEMAND HUMAN RIGHTS!
Today is March 8, International Women's Day! Today is the day when greeting cards are sent to women all over the world, sweet words of congratulation and wishes of happiness are expressed. Today is the day when women and their problems are discussed, women's rights are voiced, and demands for the restoration of women's rights are presented in different parts of the world. Although women's rights have strong presence in international conventions and laws, unfortunately, we live in one of the periods when women's rights violations are most common. Women are victims of domestic violence, oppression and war in most parts of the world.
Women are struggling with terrible problems of occupation, migration, war, conflict and systematic violations in many countries, especially in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Palestine, Egypt, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Myanmar.
East Turkistan women have also been systematically experiencing major rights violations for 74 years, since the beginning of China's occupation. But there is another very sad truth; that no matter how much they suffered, no matter how much persecution they were subjected to, they could not find the opportunity to make their voices heard. They lived indefinitely in open and closed prisons.
These human rights violations and atrocities, which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) administration tried to hide by cutting off East Turkistan's communication with the world in the past, have been revealed to the world in recent years with internet connections, concentration camp survivors and reports that have been proven to be true. While all these sufferings were experienced, international women's rights organizations preferred to remain silent about the violations of women's rights and avoided the idea of imposing sanctions on China.
Universal women's rights are rights that been uphold by constitution of most states. It is stated to protect women's equality and freedom. One of the most fundamental rights of women is the right to express their thoughts freely. Having the right to equal education, marrying the person she wants and having children are also among the basic rights of women.
But women in East Turkistan are deprived of these rights.
All kinds of physical violence, sexual violence, verbal violence, emotional violence, psychological violence and economic violence, which are recognized as crimes against women's rights by women's rights advocacy systems, are perpetrated on East Turkistan women.
Being separated from their spouses, parents and children, being condemned to live without knowing whether their relatives are dead or alive are some of the major traumas experienced by tens of thousands of East Turkistan women.
Here now, we will tell you some of the crimes committed against women in East Turkistan along these 74 years period. These crimes are dire violations of women's rights and terrible violences that go against the conscience of all humanity.
1- Complete prohibition of practices related to one’s belief and culture; changing original names with religious meaning; interfering with the way of one’s dressing; prohibiting the freedom to express one's identity as a Muslim.
2- Under the name of labor force, young girls of the marriageable age are transported to the inner regions of China by threats and blackmails. In certain situations, they are forced to work and sold to brothels.
3- With the marriage age and the process of getting pregnant under the control of the state, they are forcing pregnancy at desired age and time. For those who become pregnant during the prohibition period, they will be punished. There also have been mandatory abortion and sterilization practices.
4- Unjust and arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. After imprisonment, the children of detainees who have been left behind prevented to be taken under care of their relatives. They also take the children to the kindergartens established especially for the purpose of Sinicization.
5- The women who were taken to the camps and imprisoned were beaten, tortured by electrocution, stripped naked, gang raped and had their relatives watch the rape, sexually assaulted with objects, solitary confinement, imprisoned in ‘water jail’, kept in overcrowded places, having cigarettes extinguished on their bodies, and forced into drinking unknown drugs. dreadful torture practices such as organ removal, sterilization, forced abortion, organ trade, and forced into memorizing the march song of the regime.
6- Forced detention and systematic assimilation in camps without given any reason.
7- One of the ways for executing their assimilation policy is forced marriage of Muslim women with the Chinese by threats and blackmail and hence ignoring their identity.
8- Under the name of ‘Pair Up and Become Family Project’, Chinese men was arranged to enter their houses and the women was forced to stay in the same room with the Chinese men in the same bed. Even by expressing displeasures to the project, the women or other family members can be imprisoned under the charge of violating state laws.
9- Children whose parents are imprisoned or kept in camps are separated from their siblings,
10- Under unhealthy and difficult conditions, women are forced to work in the hard labor system and their pursuit of rights is prevented.
These systematic violations by China against the East Turkistan people based on ethnic and religious grounds are categorized as crimes against humanity by law, international and local women's rights.
China is a member of the so-called United Nations Security Council and is a party to numerous human rights conventions within the United Nations. The UN and all UN member states are fully responsible for stopping these crimes committed by China.
In order to fulfill these responsibilities, women's rights defenders all over the world; We invite all women of the world, regardless of their religion, belief or nationality, to be a voice and show solidarity with the women of East Turkistan.
We demand that China to be prosecuted for these genocide and crimes against humanity, and that the Chinese authorities to fulfill their responsibilities to the international community to prosecute and punish the responsible perpetrators.
All Islamic countries should do what is necessary and also reconsider the Chinese barcodes printed on the bodies of women of East Turkistan. We demand that every Muslim to remember their responsibility in order to stop this terrible persecution of Muslim Uyghur women. We all know that if responsibility is not fulfilled while the opportunity exists now, it will be very difficult for the final judgement in the Hereafter. For this, we call upon the entire Islamic world. Islamic countries, which often remind the world of their power and strength, should be the voice for East Turkistan. We demand that our women listen to their cries and apply effective sanctions to China to stop this persecution with their means and power. We demand a voice and an opposition to these crimes against humanity perpetrated by China in East Turkistan.
Münevver ÖZUYGUR
International Union of East Turkistan Organizations (IUETO)
Nuzugum East Turkistan Culture and Family Association
8 March 2023
