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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/03/12/uk-china-un-xinjiang-idUKKBN0M723B20150312

China – Crackdown on Uighur Muslims Disturbing – UN: Veils of Women Banned in Public +

GENEVA | By Sui-Lee Wee

March 12, 2015 - (Reuters) - A U.N. human rights investigator criticised on Wednesday China's crackdown on Muslim Uighurs in the far western region of Xinjiang, citing "disturbing stories" of harassment and intimidation against the ethnic minority.

Xinjiang has been roiled by ethnic tension between Uighurs and majority Han Chinese. Uighur groups and rights activists say the government's repressive policieshttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png in Xinjiang, including controls on Islam, have provoked unrest.

Heiner Bielefeldt, special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, told a news briefing China's actions against the Uighurs were "a major problem".

"I heard, also, very disturbing stories about harassment, for instance, intimidation during Ramadan - children in schools were expected to break their fasting on Ramadan," he said, referring to the month-long religious holiday when observant Muslims do not eat during the day.

Some Xinjiang cities have placed restrictions on Islamic dress, including the capital, Urumqi, which banned the wearing of veils in public late last year.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, said the government paid great attention to freedom of religion and it was "baseless" to say there was any kind of repression on religious practices over important festivals.

Bielefeldt said there had been no progress on his office's request to conduct an official visit to China, which was last agreed on in 2004.

Bielefeldt also criticised China for wanting to control the reincarnation of Tibetan monks, saying Beijing was "really destroying the autonomy of religious communities, poisoning the relationship between different sub-groups, creating schisms, pitching off people against each other in order to exercise control".

His comments came two days after the Chinese-appointed governor of Tibet said the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was profaning Buddhism by suggesting that he would not be reincarnated when he dies.

Activists have criticised China for using a campaign against militancy in Xinjiang to crack down on Uighurs. Hundreds have died in violence in recent years in predominantly Uighur parts of Xinjiang.

The government has blamed attacks in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China, including Beijing, on Islamist militants from the region. It says separatists there want to set up an independent state called East Turkestan.

On Thursday, the head of China's Supreme Court said 712 people had been sentenced last year for "separatist activities" or participating in terror attacks, up 13.3 percent on 2013.

"We will actively participate in the fight against terrorism and separatism (and) severely punish violent terrorist crimes according to the law," Chief Justice Zhou Qiang told the annual meeting of parliament.

Bielefeldt said he believed the crackdown on freedom of religion stemmed from nervousness on the part of an "authoritarian" government about people coming together "outside of official channels".

 

 

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Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 1:14 PM
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Subject: China - Uighur Muslim Women May Veil for Heritage or to Protest Government Pressures that Veil Can Be Sing of Extremism

 

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/asia/uighurs-veils-a-protest-against-chinas-curbs.html

 

CHINA - UIGHUR MUSLIM WOMEN FACE GOVERNMENT CHALLENGE TO TRADITIONAL UIGHUR DRESS CODE & ROLES - TENSIONS

 

Women buying scarves in a Uighur neighborhood of Urumqi, long a bastion of secular cosmopolitanism, where head scarves and veils now mingle with pants, skirts and high heels.

Gilles Sabrie for New York Times

 

By Dan Levin - August 7, 2014

 

URUMQI, China — Fond of denim and lace, fluent in multiple languages and proud of her success as an international business translator, Luna appears to be a model of the assimilated Uighur that the Chinese government is striving for. She grew up in the far-western region of Xinjiang, where marrying and mothering was the paramount role for women of her largely Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority ethnic group, and eventually moved to distant Beijing, where she feels more comfortable among the country’s Han majority than in the conservative world of her youth.

But Luna, who like others interviewed for this article asked to be identified by a nickname to avoid retaliation by the police, is increasingly torn between her professional ambition and her outrage toward official restrictions targeting the Uighur way of life. “The more the Chinese government forces us to live a Han lifestyle, the more we will find ways to express our Uighur identity,” she said.

As the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang intensify an increasingly deadly campaign framed as a battle against Islamic separatists, they have cast their net over a wide range of Uighur practices, including the wearing of veils and long beards, which are seen as dangerous signs of religious extremism. Some Uighurs have responded with alarm, redoubling efforts to safeguard centuries-old traditions they fear could disappear. Critics argue that the government’s increasingly assertive policies have inadvertently bolstered the appeal of conservative Islam, with its emphasis on morality and traditional roles for women.

Stuck in the middle of this intensifying culture war are Uighur women who want to embrace modernity without forsaking their heritage.

“Uighur women are really the first victims of mounting tensions and repression in Xinjiang,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong. “They are under pressure from the state to adopt new standards, and pressured by their communities to cut ties with a society seen as unclean.”

At a popular night market here in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, women in black burqas hawk fake designer undergarments next to stalls doing a brisk business in bluejeans and silk head scarves decorated with the Louis Vuitton logo. One scarf vendor, her face framed by a yellow hijab, explained the concealment of her hair as an act of piety. “Allah tells us women to be modest, so we cover up,” she said.

But the state is making life increasingly difficult for faithful Uighurs. Along with deploying security forces armed with heavy weaponry, officials have instituted a wave of prohibitions meant to forcibly assimilate Uighurs into the Chinese nation.

During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended late last month, students and government workers were prohibited from fasting. A drive to repress female head coverings in some areas, marked by street checkpoints, Uighurs say, and barring such coverings at hospitals, schools and banks, gained sharper teeth on Wednesday when Karamay, a city in northern Xinjiang, banned men with long beards and women in veils from riding public buses. The stricter rules add to longstanding grievances among the country’s 10 million Uighurs, who resent policies they say favor Mandarin over the Uighur language in schools and have made them a minority in their traditional homeland.

Eager to win over Uighur women, the government in 2011 introduced Project Beauty, a campaign to discourage women from wearing veils and head scarves that urges them to “show your pretty faces and let your beautiful hair fly in the wind.” Officials say the campaign promotes female empowerment while nurturing a local fashion and cosmetics industry said to be worth $480 million. To drive home the message of gender equality, the campaign uses films, fashion shows and the state-controlled media, some of which claim that veils cause depression and scare children.

Wang Jianling, party secretary of the government-run Xinjiang Women’s Association, denied the existence of checkpoints and insisted that it was “extremely rare” for Uighur women to wear veils. Still, she praised Project Beauty as vital for encouraging Uighur women to embrace modernity. “It would be impossible to empower women and realize their full potential if you don’t say goodbye to outdated practices designed to hold women down,” she said in a phone interview.

Despite the cheerful propaganda, veils have become a point of contention for violent clashes. In May, protesters in southern Xinjiang beat up a school principal they had accused of helping the authorities round up female students wearing head scarves. Police officers opened fire on the angry crowd, killing at least four people, Uighur activists say. In June, four Uighur men were shot and killed during a confrontation with officials who had lifted a woman’s veil during a house inspection.

The battle over the female dress code is part of a larger struggle over what it means to be Uighur in Xinjiang, a place long known for its moderate brand of Sunni Islam. Though some Uighur women cover their hair and faces for religious reasons, a growing number appear to be embracing the practice as a gesture of quiet defiance. “Whenever I go home to Xinjiang, I wear a head scarf to show that I cherish my culture,” said Luna, the business translator.

As the self-appointed protector of Uighur culture, the government is fond of using the state-controlled mass media as a tool for guiding sartorial public opinion. On television, Uighur women are invariably typecast as loyal, exotic props in a state-scripted patriotic epic that stars the ruling Han majority. Their costumes — traditional ethnic dresses, embroidered caps and long braids — reinforce the official message that veils and head scarves have no place in Uighur daily life.

Just as there are women in other countries who see the veil as a symbol of female repression, some Uighur women reject the conservative religious traditions of their ethnic group. “In traditional Uighur culture, women are below men,” said Zoe, a proudly assimilated Uighur magazine editor, who never covers her hair and has a Han boyfriend, despite her parents’ objections. “Many young women like me don’t want to follow the same rules as their mothers did.”

Beijing has spent heavily wooing women in Xinjiang. From 2000 to 2010, according to government figures, well over three million ethnic minority women enrolled in classes that taught tailoring, cooking and computer skills. In Kashgar, the ancient Silk Road oasis that is predominantly Uighur, officials have distributed about $640 million in microloans to women since 2011, said Ms. Wang, the women’s association party secretary.

In some ways, Beijing’s heavy-handed governance has overshadowed its measurable success in bolstering opportunities for Uighur women. “Before, when families wanted to find a bride for their son, they looked for a girl who could cook,” said Rahile Dawut, director of the Xinjiang Folklore Research Center at Xinjiang University in Urumqi. “Now, they want an educated girl with a job.”

Ms. Dawut is particularly inspired by her female master’s students, an intrepid band of academic achievers who travel across Xinjiang to record oral histories. But these days, Ms. Dawut’s pride is tinged with alarm as more Uighur women turn to conservative Islam