Diary of a Feminist: Muetter Ilquid on Courage and the Fight for Uyghur Identity
In this edition of Diary of a Feminist, we hear the story of Muetter Ilquid, originally from the Uyghur region in the northwest which China’s colonial powers renamed “Xinjiang.” Muetter is Uyghur, a minority Muslim community that has faced decades of oppression, abuse, and systematic erasure by the Chinese government. Due to the instability and worsening situation Muetter and her family had to leave their home when she was a child, seeking refugee in Norway, which she explained became her second home.
What is happening to the Uyghur people and other minorities in China is unimaginable. Due to China’s advanced surveillance coverage in mainstream media has been limited, and it tends to focus on the statistics. Though these people are more than just a number, as Muetter explains, “They are people with dreams, lives, and ambitions. Their voices must be heard.” The world must listen and support communities and do more to make sure this oppression is not a repeated story told by future generations.
Muetter, a qualified human rights lawyer, has dedicated her life to researching, and advocating for her community. This in itself carries a heavy burden, as she described: “I am risking my family back home. who I haven't spoken to in more than 10 years now. I know that I'm risking their lives in doing this work, I'm putting them in danger.”
Intersectional identity
Muetter has many layers to her identity, “My identity as a lawyer comes with a sense of responsibility to emphasize the voices of those who cannot speak freely.” The refugee layer to Muetter and her family’s identity reminds her of the “resilience to survive forced displacement and to rebuild a sense of belonging while resisting cultural erasure.”
Feminism is a huge part of Muetter’s life and intertwines itself into the advocacy work she does. “It impacts how I approach my work, it provides a framework for addressing the gender dimension of oppression,” she explained. “Women are the most vulnerable in my community, as they face gender-based violence, forced sterilization, and surveillance.”
“My parents decided to flee the country in 2010, because of the persecution and suppression of the Uyghur community in that region, which we call East Turkistan in my native language.”
After arriving in Norway, Muetter and her family were not immediately aware of the full extent of what was happening in the home region, “Until we heard from people that managed to escape the region and they were telling about their horrific experiences of torture of political indoctrination, sexual violence that was happening in those camps.” For Muetter, learning about the persecution of her community and people, was the driving force behind her start in advocacy, she began writing opinion articles and then transitioned into research.
The camps Muetter refers to have been branded by China as “education camps.” However, over time it has become clear that these camps are, in fact enforced by the Chinese government, which imprisons minority groups in the camps. From satellite images, it is evident that the camps are growing at a worrying rate. Muetter has also found through research that crematoriums have been placed around the camps.
It’s an open-air prison
Much of the research that has been done on China’s oppression and ethnic cleansing of minority groups focuses on the camps in which Uyghurs and other minorities have been forcibly captured. The camps are undoubtedly a huge form of oppression against the community however many other forms of oppression are happening outside these camps, “living in the region is basically like living in an open-air prison,” Muetter said.
Muetter has heard many lived experiences from survivors, “One woman who I spoke with told me that posters were put around local areas, and residents were contacted to tell all women aged 16 to 55 to meet in the ‘authority house’ where they would implement forced sterilization on women by making them take birth control, have IUD’s fitted, even those who were pregnant would be forced to have an abortion. These policies by China are used to control population, and even out the population development among ethnicities.”
Another survivor told Muetter, that in households where husbands have been abducted from Uyghur families, the Chinese regime forced civil servants, locally known as “cadres” to move into the Uyghur family’s home. “Under this policy, the Chinese civil servants are forced to live with the Uyghur family, cook together, learn Chinese together, and sleep together. They are made to become a family, and under this policy, the women are being subjected to sexual harassment and rape.”
In addition to this, the movement of Uyghurs and minority groups is tracked excessively using facial recognition, DNA collection, and AI. “Minority groups are forced to download an application on their digital devices called ‘Clean Net Guardian’ which monitors all their digital activity,” said Muetter.
There are also checkpoints in cities, with police officers every 10 meters, and a station every 100 meters. Another survivor told Muetter, about a ‘Green Card System,’ “The system works on a loyalty credit score system, so the more loyal you are to China’s regime the more points you can get which in return can grant you some rights to move between cities and areas,” Muetter detailed.
Other forms of oppression are working to erase every aspect of the Uyghur identity, “They are forbidden to speak their native language in public places, they are not allowed to practice anything associated to their religion for instance not being allowed to fast in Ramadan, or wear traditional clothes.”
The root of oppression
Oppression is never warranted, but to understand the wider context, it is important to understand that the Uyghur region is annexed land that was once independent, then communist China took over. Muetter emphasized that the people in this region largely share a Turkic identity, as they have come from Turkic neighbor countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, people from these countries share a lot in common in terms of culture, identity, religion, and language.”
However, people of Turkic origins share very little in common with Han Chinese people or other Chinese ethnicities. “This is one of the roots of why the Chinese government sees us as untrustworthy,” Muetter indicated.
Collecting evidence of what is happening is challenging, not only because many people cannot escape, or have no documentation to get out of the country, but also deep-rooted fear is instilled in people even if they have managed to flee. “Transnational oppression exists among the diaspora, where they fear of what will happen when they speak out not only to them but to the people they have had to leave behind.”
Even if you manage to leave there are still risks, China in the past asked for the minority diaspora to be deported back, and Muetter recalled that countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia complied with the request.
The Chinese regime also uses digital monitoring to its advantage, Muetter said: “I don’t think any of my devices have ever been completely safe, I have received notifications on my Gmail account saying it has been compromised by state-backed cyber attacks and that this is extremely rare happening to less than 0.0001% of Google users.”
Supporting the refugee community
Discussing the refugee community as a whole, Muetter stressed that she would like the outside community to understand “the humanity that is rooted in the refugee community because nobody wants to leave their home forever. They are uprooted, not by choice, but by circumstances that are beyond their control, because of war, persecution, and systematic oppression that threatens their lives.”
Beyond understanding and compassion, Muetter would like people to address the stereotypes and biases against the community, as too often refugees are labeled a “burden to society.” On the other hand, Muetter says the community can be met with pity or suspicion, instead of solidarity.
“We should reject this kind of narrative and create a more inclusive society that recognizes their struggles and the shared humanity between all of us,” Muetter concluded.
About the author:
Olivia Hooper is one of the co-directors of Politics4Her, she is a British journalist and editor with a degree in translation. Olivia uses her career in journalism to advocate on gender-based issues surrounding women and girls.
