Uyghur Women Activists in the Diaspora - (Bloomsbury Studies in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality) (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Ten women narrate their struggles as ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang, their turning points that prompted them to leave China, and the emergence of a new Uyghur-Muslim feminism"--

Book Synopsis

Presenting the life stories of ten Uyghur women, this book applies the techniques ofnarrative analysis to explore their changing worldviews and conversions to politicalengagement.Born and raised in East Turkestan/Xinjiang in the 1970s-90s, each woman, after personally experiencing incidents of ethnic discrimination, chose to leave China before 2005. Settling in a western country, they strive to become the voice of the Turkic people who are silenced or detained in the "re-education" camps.

The narratives are based on interviews conducted online between 2020 and 2021, collected as a form of oral history. The book focuses on the escalating tensions, turning points experienced in their youth, and the religious, political and psychological factors that prompted their transformations in self-identity, ideology and the emergence of a new Uyghur-Muslim feminism.

Through the women's stories, the book describes how women activists are navigating the competing reality constructions of the dire situation in the Uyghur Homeland and actively restorying a genocide to bring about social and political change.

Review Quotes

This is the first book to specifically highlight the critical role Uyghur women in diaspora have played in bringing attention to the challenges that Uyghurs face today. These oral histories reveal the fortitude of a community under duress, and are an important backdrop for examining Uyghur activism through a gender lens.

Rebecca Clothey, Professor, Global Studies, Drexel University
Rebecca Clothey, Professor of Global Studies, Drexel University, USA

About the Author

Susan J. Palmer is an Affiliate Professor at Concordia University, and a Lecturer and Researcher at McGill University. She has authored or co-edited many books on new religious movements.

Dilmurat Mahmut is an independent researcher, and his research interests include Muslim identity in the West, immigrant/refugee integration and Uyghur diaspora identity.

Abdulmuqtedir Udun is a Uyghur researcher, journalist and interpreter based in Ottawa, Canada.