Women Writers
-
A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs by Gulchehra Hoja review – a powerful testament of Uyghur persecution
Source: The Guardian As a beautiful young TV star at the turn of the millennium, Gulchehra Hoja was highly valued by the Chinese state. She presented popular children’s programmes, was lavishly paid and mingled with influential media figures in Beijing. But by 2017, she had been designated a terrorist and placed on China’s most wanted list. The next year, 24 of her family members disappeared in a single night, into the black hole of state detention. A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs is Hoja’s account of that dizzying journey from local celebrity to exiled activist living in the permanent shadow of a superpower’s revenge. It’s also a first-hand testimony of China’s persecution of its Uyghur Muslim minority, which rights groups have described as constituting “crimes against humanity” and which the US designated a genocide in 2021. Hoja grew up at China’s north-westernmost limits, in the vast arid territory that the state calls the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but that Hoja and many other Uyghurs know as East Turkestan. In the regional capital of Urumqi, her family were “much closer to Kazakhstan than to Beijing”; they spoke Uyghur, a Turkic language written in an Arabic-derived script; followed Islam; and gathered for evenings of traditional music, dance and communal feasting. But even as a young girl, Hoja realised that “there were always two lessons to be learned: what was in the CCP-issued schoolbooks, and then the real history, literature and culture, which could only be learned from people like my father, in private settings and in low voices”. The facts of that history were so politically dangerous that within China they were erased altogether. Though the Uyghur homeland had been under Chinese military control since the 1750s, through the 19th and early 20th centuries it remained a turbulent and contested […]
-
Celebrating World Poetry Day & Nowruz Festival with Uyghur poetry
دۇنيا شېئىرىيەت كۈنى ۋە نوۋرۇز بايرىمىنى كۈتۈۋېلىش: ئۇيغۇر شائىرلار مۇشائىرەسى پائالىيەت ۋاقتى: 2021-يىلى 21-مارت لوندون ۋاقتى ئەتىگەن سائەت 10 دا تورى ئارقىلىق ئېلىپ بېرىلىدۇ Webex پائالىيەتئالدىدىن تىزىملىتىش ئارقىلىق بۇ پائالىيەتكە قاتنىشالايسىز: تىزىملىتىش www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celebrating-world-poetry-day-nowruz-festival-with-uyghur-poetry-tickets-145845055487 پائالىيەت خەلقئارا قەلەمكەشلەر ئۇيغۇر مەركىزى بىلەن خەلقئارا قەلەمكەشلەر جەمىيىتىنىڭ ھەمكارلىغىدا ئۆتكۈزۈلىدۇ Sunday 21 March 2021, 10 am London time PEN Uyghur Centre promotes literature, freedom of expression, and the right to use our mother tongue, and works to sustain Uyghur culture in the diaspora. We celebrate PEN International Centenary 2021100 years of celebrating literature and protecting freedom of expression• Date and time: Sunday 21 March 2021, 10 am London time • Topic: Uyghur poetry• Platform: Webex Webinar• Language: Uyghur and English• The Webinar will be shared live on Uyghur PEN’s Face Book.Registration on the Eventbrite:www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celebrating-world-poetry-day-nowruz-festival-with-uyghur-poetry-tickets-145845055487Organised: Uyghur PEN Online Revitalisation Project with the support of PEN International.www.uyghurpen.org | www.pen-international.org Celebrating World Poetry Day & Nowruz Festival with Uyghur poetry Moderators: Aziz Isa ElkunFatimah Abdulghafur Seyyah Poetry readings by: Sabirem Anwarova (Kazakhstan)Muyesser Abdulehed (Turkey)Abdurehim Parach (Turkey)Abide Abbas Nesrin (Turkey)Gülnaz Saydullayeva (Kazakhstan)Fatimah Abdulghafur Seyyah (Australia)Vilyam Molut (Kazakhstan)Aziz Isa Elkun (England) . The “International Day of Nowruz” was proclaimed in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly. The festival of Nowruz unites the individuals and peoples of the 12 countries that together nominated the festival for inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity to celebrate values of sharing and harmony. . World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO in 1999, “with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard”. At a time of crisis for Uyghur language and culture, in the midest of China’s genocide policies towards the Uyghurs with cultural erasure in the Uyghur homeland, we celeberate the “International Day of […]
-
Day of the Imprisoned Writer 2020: Take Action for Chimengül Awut
Name: Chimengül AwutOccupation: Editor, award-winning Uyghur-language poetSituation: Imprisoned without trial in ‘re-education camp’ #ImprisonedWriter #ChimengulAwut Read Ma Thida’S Solidarity Letter To Chimengül Chimengül Awut is an editor and poet from Kashgar, southern Xinjiang. She published her first poem in 1987, at the age of fourteen, and has since developed a substantial body of work. In 2008, Chimengül’s collection of poetry received a prestigious Horse Award for national minority literature. At the time of her detention, Chimengül worked as an editor at the Kashgar Publishing House in Xinjiang. In July 2018, public security officials in Kashgar sent 13 employees of the Kashgar Publishing House, including Chimengül Awut, to Xinjiang’s ‘re-education’ camps. She was allegedly targeted because of her work editing a Uyghur-language novel called Golden Shoes (Altun Kesh) by Halide İsra’il, who also has been detained in Xinjiang’s ‘re-education’ camps. Owing to the extra-legal nature of the ‘re-education’ camps, she was not found guilty of committing a crime through any formal legal process and there is no official date for her release. All contact with the outside world is prohibited by the security services. Her current health and well-being are unknown. It is estimated that up to 1.8 million people like Chimengül could be held in a network of secretive ‘re-education’ camps. PEN International considers Chimengül Awut’s persecution to be a clear breach of her right to freedom of expression and calls for her to be immediately and unconditionally released. Take Action Send an appeal to the Chinese authorities Tell others: share Chimengül’s case and her work Give to our Day of Imprisoned Writer appeal Read Ma Thida’s solidarity letter to Chimengül Send an appeal to the Chinese authorities Ask the authorities to: Provide information on Chimengül Awut’s current status, and allow for independent verification. Release Chimengül Awut and her colleagues immediately and unconditionally. End the practice of […]
-
Day of the Imprisoned Writer 2020
Day of the Imprisoned Writer 2020 On 15 November, the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, PEN International calls for urgent international action to protect writers and journalists across the globe, who increasingly find themselves targeted for their peaceful free expression work. Imprisoned writers rely on PEN to advocate for their freedom and to defy those who want to silence them. From practical support for writers seeking asylum or in exile, to using our platforms to share their words, to putting pressure on the powerful – this work is only possible with your support. Source: PEN Internationalhttps://pen-international.org/protecting-writers-at-risk/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2020
-
Recent Comments