Rahile is a highly respected scholar of Uyghur religious traditions and oral literature. She is also a lovely human being.
1/5
In January 2017, the Chinese government-run journal Xinjiang Women honored Rahile by putting her on its cover.
In December of that year, the same government threw Rahile in an internment camp.
Three years have now passed. No charges, no date of release, no news. Just gone.
2/5
Rahile Dawut has done more than perhaps any other person to archive Uyghur oral literature.
She is a leading scholar of shrine pilgrimage among the Uyghurs.
She is a beloved mentor to a generation of Uyghur students, many of whom have gone on to their own scholarly careers
3/5
I've spent countless hours in conversation with Rahile, worked for her as a translator, and consider her a good friend. I've learned more from her than I could recount.
Rahile is a warm, kind, generous person with a terrific sense of humor and off-the-charts people skills.
4/5
I could go on about Rahile's achievements and everything else. But really, I shouldn't have to. Really, it should be enough to say that no person should be sent to an internment camp on the basis of their ethnicity.
It's been 3 years. That's 3 years too many. #FreeRahile
Pls RT
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It's the 51st bday of #Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti. He’s spending it in prison, where he’s been serving a life sentence since 2014. His crime: advocating equality for Uyghurs in China.
I listened to some old interviews w Ilham & translated a few of his powerful words. Pls RT
1/5
Ilham's requests for equality were modest:
“I believe that for the Uyghur people, if policies of equality and autonomy are implemented, if their language is protected, if they can trust the law, they will have confidence in the country.”
“Law is the strongest tool. Even now I'm not alone; the law is on my side. I take the law to heart. These ideas aren't only mine…While it's me expressing them, they're not my ideas—they're the people’s."
Abduwéli Ershidin Bozlan is part of a remarkable generation of avant-garde #Uyghur poets who came of age in the 2000s. Here is my translation of my favorite of Bozlan's works, a strangely compelling and romantic poem I keep coming back to. Tr. published in @harvardadvocate
1/5
THE OLD ERA AND THE WOLF GIRL
Bozlan
You secretly try to howl my heart,
a thousand years I've lain listening as you howled among bones.
Our souls were two bullets shot at each other,
when our corpses like buried cities are half uncovered,
you secretly try to howl my heart.
2/5
You secretly try to howl my heart,
ruins flow through veins like a dead man's lost body.
Our tunnels back to you were choked up with mud and clay,
when the peal of a bell breaks through the wine cup,
you secretly try to howl my heart.
3/5