{"id":3781,"date":"2017-06-16T00:02:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T00:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2017\/06\/16\/uyghurs-rally-around-language-face-pressures-china\/"},"modified":"2017-06-16T00:02:09","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T00:02:09","slug":"uyghurs-rally-around-language-face-pressures-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/uyghurs-rally-around-language-face-pressures-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Uyghurs Rally Around Language in Face of Pressures From China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Radio of Free Asia<\/a><\/p>\n

Members of the worldwide community of Uyghurs rallied on Thursday in defense of their language, warning that their Turkic tongue and cultural identity are under threat from heavy-handed Chinese policies to assimilate the central Asian ethnic group.<\/p>\n

\u201cUyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) invites all concerned individuals, human rights groups and governments to speak out against Chinese government policies aimed at undermining the linguistic rights of the Uyghur people,\u201d the Washington-based group said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The UHRP and other exile organizations launched International Uyghur Language Day in 2015 \u201cto celebrate the vibrancy and richness of the Uyghur language\u201d and celebrate contributions to humanity by Uyghur scientists, philosophers and poets, UHRP Director Omer Kanat said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cUyghurs are rightfully proud of these achievements and wish to secure a future for their children as speakers of Uyghur,\u201d Kanat added.<\/p>\n

Scholars say there are more that 10 million speakers of Uyghur, a Turkic language with similarities to Uzbek. Native speakers are concentrated in the Chinese-controlled Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but significant numbers are also found in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

In Xinjiang, where it is an official language, Uyghur is under pressure from Chinese policies, Kanat said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina has implemented a series of policies that undermine the Uyghur language with the goal of establishing Chinese as the Uyghurs\u2019 first language,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite guarantees in international and domestic law, the Chinese authorities have unilaterally prioritized communication in government, commerce and education among Uyghurs toward Mandarin Chinese,\u201d Kanat added.<\/p>\n

Harsh new policies<\/b><\/p>\n

Kanat took aim at what Chinese call \u201cbilingual education\u201d policies, which he said are undermining the Uyghur language and its official position in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, everyone can see that Chinese government increasing its forceful measures to assimilate Uyghur language and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s observation of language day comes amid a deepening clampdown on the Muslim Uyghur\u2019s religious and cultural practices that has seen Beijing roll out a series of repressive policies in the Xinjiang region.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Chinese authorities across Xinjiang have punished Uyghurs for trying to fast during Ramadan, forced restaurants to stay open and restricted access to mosques to discourage traditional observation of the holy month, and even gone as far as embedding Chinese officials in Uyghur homes to curb religious observance.<\/p>\n

A related campaign, unveiled in April, declared \u201coverly religious names\u201d\u2014such as Islam, Quran, Mecca, Imam, Saddam, Hajj, and Medina\u2014were banned under the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s \u201cNaming Rules For Ethnic Minorities,\u201d RFA\u2019s Uyghur reported recently.<\/p>\n

That ban, which means 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, was extended to cover anyone up to the age of 16, official sources told RFA earlier this month.<\/p>\n

China has vowed to crack down on what it calls religious extremism in Xinjiang, and regularly conducts “strike hard\u201d campaigns including random, nighttime police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including clothing and personal appearance.<\/p>\n

And while Beijing blames some Uyghurs for a string of violent attacks and clashes in recent years, critics say repressive domestic policies are responsible for violence that has left hundreds dead since 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope every Uyghur family, every single Uyghur man and woman to speak Uyghur in the International Uyghur Language Day,\u201d Dolkun Isa, the general secretary of the World Uyghur Congress, told RFA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this kind of activities, we (resist) Chinese government\u2019s systematically assimilationist policies on Uyghur language, culture and identity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Reported and translated by Eset Sulayman for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Radio of Free Asia Members of the worldwide community of Uyghurs rallied on Thursday in defense of their language, warning that their Turkic tongue and cultural identity are under threat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781","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=3781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}