China Sentenced Scholar of Uyghur Culture to Life in Prison, Rights Group

September 22, 2023

(Wall Street Journal) – A leading scholar of Uyghur traditional culture who disappeared in December 2017 has been sentenced to life in prison for endangering China’s state security, a human-rights group said, citing an unnamed Chinese official. The scholar, Rahile Dawut, was renowned for crisscrossing the oasis towns and shrines of the Xinjiang region in far western China to document religious festivals, music performances and traditional storytelling of her own Uyghur community.

When she disappeared, family and colleagues believed she had likely been detained as part of a sweeping campaign of forcible assimilation Chinese authorities carried out against Uyghurs and other Turkic minority groups, which included the incarceration of hundreds of thousands in indoctrination camps and prisons. (Read More)