Officials say it is currently too difficult to change the IDs of adults, though they may be next.<\/p>\n
2017-06-01<\/p>\n
Authorities in northwest China\u2019s Xinjiang region have extended a recently introduced ban on \u201cextreme\u201d Islamic names for ethnic Uyghur babies to include anyone up to the age of 16, according to official sources and residents, and the order may soon include Uyghurs of all ages.<\/p>\n
According to a recent posting on WeChat by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region\u2019s Public Security Bureau, Order No. 4425 requires all Uyghur parents to change the names of children under 16 years of age, if they are among those listed in a region-wide ban uncovered by RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
In April, official sources told RFA that \u201coverly religious names\u201d\u2014such as Islam, Quran, Mecca, Jihad, Imam, Saddam, Hajj, and Medina\u2014were banned under the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s \u201cNaming Rules For Ethnic Minorities,\u201d and that any babies registered with such names would be barred from the \u201chukou\u201d household registration system that gives access to health care and education.<\/p>\n
A police officer in Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) prefecture recently confirmed to RFA that his station in Hotan city\u2019s Elchi district was ordered last month to complete name changes of Uyghurs aged 16 and younger by June 1, but said that due to technical issues the deadline may be extended to July 1.<\/p>\n
The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said \u201c15 names cannot be used, including Arafat,\u201d and that parents should bring both their own and their children\u2019s household registration papers to the police station to make the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are changing only the names of minors under 16,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ones 16 and above have not been ordered to change yet, due to the difficulty of changing their ID cards and driver\u2019s licenses, so we do not have any directive on changing their names.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the officer, students who have completed primary school must also change the names on their graduation certificates, meaning they must visit both their local police station and education department.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that the name change process is difficult, as many parents have been the target of a crackdown on what Beijing calls religious extremism in Xinjiang, with authorities conducting regular \u201cstrike hard\u201d campaigns including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, the village cadres are assisting the minors to change their names, because some of their parents are either in jail or detention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The officer said that many Uyghur parents had given their children \u201cextremist\u201d names when Beijing\u2019s policies in the region were \u201clenient,\u201d but \u201cat the moment, since they cannot use those names, they are simply changing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe locals have no objections,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
An official from Hotan prefecture\u2019s Qaraqash (Moyu) county government also told RFA his office had recently received an order to change banned names for Uyghur children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are around seven names and the order specified that the name change should be done for free,\u201d said the official, who also asked to remain unnamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, they have to change names like Arafat. My colleague\u2019s son\u2019s name was Arafat and he was made to change it. He is a Xinjiang Medical University student.\u201d<\/p>\n
The official did not specify the age of the young man.<\/p>\n
A teacher in Hotan city also confirmed the name ban, but said that none of the Uyghur students at her school had \u201cradical\u201d names.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some students named after their grandparents\u2014such as Ayshem, Tohti and Mahmut\u2014and most have more popular names\u2014such as Ilnur and Dilnur\u2014so we didn\u2019t hear much about the name ban here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Judging names<\/strong><\/p>\n Sources in Hotan had previously detailed to RFA a list of banned names in 2015, but an employee who answered the phone at a police station in the regional capital Urumqi suggested in April that the ban had since been rolled out region-wide.<\/p>\n The employee said at the time that names \u201cwith a strong religious flavor, such as Jihad\u201d or those with \u201cconnotations of holy war or of splittism [Xinjiang independence]\u201d were no longer allowed.<\/p>\n Other rules on what constituted an \u201cextremist\u201d name seemed arbitrary, at best.<\/p>\n Names of Islamic scholars could be regarded as \u201cpromoting terror and evil cults,\u201d Yultuzay\u2014a reference to the star and moon symbol of the Islamic faith\u2014is \u201cpagan,\u201d and Mecca \u201cwould be a bit over-the-top,\u201d the employee said, adding that he didn\u2019t think Saddam would be acceptable either.<\/p>\n \u201cJust stick to the party line, and you’ll be fine,\u201d he told RFA.<\/p>\n \u201c[People with banned names] won’t be able to get a household registration, so they will find out from the hukou office when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n A second source told RFA at the time that the safest names for Uyghurs are those that are considered more \u201cmainstream\u201d by the Chinese Communist Party, such as Memet.<\/p>\n Invasion of privacy<\/strong><\/p>\n Dolkun Isa, general secretary of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress exile group, strongly condemned the Chinese government for forcibly changing the names of Uyghur children under the age of 16.<\/p>\n \u201cThis demonstrates how far and wide the Chinese government violates the fundamental human rights of the Uyghur people and invades the very privacy of their lives,\u201d he told RFA.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly, Uyghur parents are being stripped of the right to name their own children.\u201d<\/p>\n Isa noted that in every culture, baby names are carefully selected\u2014often with the input of the extended family\u2014and said Uyghur families should not be denied that right.<\/p>\n \u201cChina should be ashamed of forcing Uyghur parents to change the names of their children under any circumstances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While China blames some Uyghurs for “terrorist” attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.<\/p>\n Reported by Mihray Abdulin for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Officials say it is currently too difficult to change the IDs of adults, though they may be next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3760"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}