The Thistle And The Drone by Akbar Ahmed

Author:Akbar Ahmed [Ahmed, Akbar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Kekenus Sidik, a Uyghur, interviewed by the author (center), and Dean Emeritus Louis Goodman at American University (American University/Annie Lyon).

The life, fears, and aspirations of Kekenus Sidik, a young Uyghur woman, could reflect those of any young woman from the other case studies in this volume. I was introduced in 2012 to Kekenus through my daughter, Nafees, when both were students at Georgetown University, and my team and I were impressed by her confidence and composure, particularly after hearing her profoundly moving story.

Kekenus is the daughter of Rebiya Kadeer, a witness of what became known as the Gulja massacre and a well-known human rights activist who is currently president of the World Uyghur Congress. Kekenus was born in Urumqi. In our discussion, she said her mother, father, and two brothers were arrested for “political activity” and disappeared into the jail system for many years where they were subjected to torture. Her mother was locked in solitary confinement for two years. Though ten years have passed since her father was released from prison, he is still terrified whenever he sees a dog because it reminds him of his ordeal in prison.

Kekenus spoke with pride of the customs of the Uyghurs, especially their hospitality, sense of community, and identity as a Muslim Turkic people. But she is a realist. She described the steady changes in society from the time she was a child, lamenting the plight of the young who will “within a generation” have forgotten to speak Uyghur under current educational, cultural, and employment pressures. Since worthwhile employment is impossible without fluent Chinese, large numbers of Uyghurs are without work. The only jobs Uyghur girls are offered, she told us, are in faraway Chinese cities where they are hired as prostitutes. The Chinese policy, she added, is “to assimilate and exterminate” the Uyghur, whom they see as “inferior,” “second-class,” “thieves,” and “dirty.” She described the situation as “very, very bad.” Everyone secretly wants independence but is “too scared” to say it—“scared to go out, scared to be picked up, and being killed.” Tragically, Kekenus lamented, the Uyghur have no great leader like the Dalai Lama to speak for them on the world stage. To make matters worse, she said, the world is so anxious to please China that it avoids discussing the issue of human rights. Unlike President George W. Bush, neither President Barack Obama nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had met her mother to talk about the human rights of the Uyghurs.

Emma, another Muslim woman from China who was interviewed for this study in 2012, had nothing in common with Kekunus; the former is the classic insider, and the latter, in the opposite direction, the ultimate outsider as far as China is concerned. Emma was a deputy director in the Center for Religious Research of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Chinese government in Beijing, a proud representative of a world power. Unlike Kekunus, Emma had several names reflecting her different identities. She called herself Emma— a nice

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