Home / Activity / On the WOK.radar / ARTICLE: Rabigül’s Story – the story of an Uyghur woman who chose Warsaw to escape persecution by the Chinese government

Dr. Rabigül Erkmen

I am a researcher, writer and human rights activist focused on language, culture and the situation of the Uyghur people, who face persecution by the Chinese authorities. I hold a PhD in Turkology from Hacettepe University in Turkey, where I defended a thesis on Uyghur manuscripts from the Gunnar Jarring Collection in Sweden. Between 2019 and 2023, I taught Uyghur at the Department of Modern Turkic Languages and Literatures at Hacettepe University.

In 2021, I worked as a trainee researcher at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), where I co-authored a report documenting the persecution of Uyghurs. In July 2020 I co-founded an online Uyghur language school, and have volunteered as a teacher there ever since. I also contribute to a children’s magazine that promotes Uyghur identity.

After leaving China in 2017 to pursue my PhD in Turkey, my father, mother and brother were detained and sent to so-called “re-education camps” in Xinjiang. Since 2016, millions of innocent Uyghurs have been imprisoned in these camps as part of mass arrests carried out by the Chinese government. In reality, they are concentration camps where people are subjected to torture and inhumane treatment. Since then, I have also been directly targeted by the Chinese authorities because of my identity.

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ARTICLE: Rabigül’s Story – the story of an Uyghur woman who chose Warsaw to escape persecution by the Chinese government
When I came to Turkey to study for my PhD, I imagined a very different future for myself. In 2017, mass arrests of Uyghurs took place in my hometown, and this changed the course of my dreams. (...) On 3 September 2024, I finished the eight-year stage of my life in Turkey and flew to Warsaw.
On the WOK.radar
3 days ago

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