A testimony from our “100 Camp Testimonies” Book
I live in Turkey, and I would like to testify for my mother.
After obtaining my bachelor’s degree, I started working for the logistics team of Xinjiang University. After the July 5, 2009 Ürümchi Uprising, due to discrimination and harassment at work, I decided to quit my job and pursue a master’s degree abroad.
In 2012, I obtained my passport and went to Egypt, where I studied for five years. In 2017, we heard that the Egyptian government had started deporting Uyghur students at China’s request. My husband also received many calls from the local Chinese authorities asking us to return to East Turkistan. We felt that it was no longer safe for us to stay in Egypt, so we came to Turkey in May 2017, two months before the mass deportation of Uyghurs in Egypt as reported by The New York Times.[1] I have been living in Turkey since 2017.
My last contact with my mother, Nurnisa Mamut,[2] was in July or August 2017. I also could not reach my mother earlier that year (circa February) as she disappeared for 15 days. My relatives defriended me on Chinese social media apps such as WeChat. I am the only child to my mother, and if she could, she would have contacted me by any means. I believe that my mother was detained and sent to an internment camp. She would have let me know her whereabouts if she had gotten the chance. I strongly demand that the Chinese regime release my mother and grant me a chance to meet her.
[1] Youssef, Nour. (2017, July 6). Egyptian Police Detain Uighurs and Deport Them to China. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/world/asia/egypt-muslims-uighurs-deportations-xinjiang-china.html
[2] My mother and I use my grandfather’s name as our surname.