Opinion: End the violence to women in Chinese camps

The rise of social media recognition for international conflicts are rising in number of views and people choosing to partake in spreading it through different outlets such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. We have seen this with past and current problems such as the crisis in Sudan, Somalia, Kashmir, the murder and assault of women in Turkey, military coups and attempts, war outbreak and violence in different parts of the Middle East and in several different regions in the world. 

This next part of  the series focuses on the Uyghur women held in concentration camps in  Xinjiang — as evidence was found of them being in critical condition in these camps. 

Shannon Molloy provided quotes on the outlet News.com.au of Uyghur women that have been in the camps and what they were forced to endure. 

“We had to stick our arms out through a small opening in the door,” said 54-year-old Gulbahar Jalilova, explaining the injections doctors repetitively injected them with. “We soon realised that after our injections that we didn’t get our periods anymore.”

The conditions that the women have to go through are absolutely inhumane and do not differ from the Nazi concentration camps that Jews and many other ethnic groups were placed in. 

“In the past, Uyghur women who were detained in camps and now live in western nations have told of being forced to abort babies — including late in the term of pregnancies” said Molloy. 

The pictures and testimonies given by Uyghurs should be enough evidence for leaders in power to impose sanctions against China and stand in solidarity for the many humans killed in the unspeakable torturous experiments and acts that are practiced on them. 

In 2013, an article by Radio Free Asia went more in depth of the abortions Uyghur women are forced to go through with. 

“My wife was injected by doctors at 11 p.m. on Wednesday and she gave birth at 5 p.m. the next day. My son was crying when he was born.” said Memettursun Kawul. “The doctors in the hospital tried to save him but failed, citing the abortion drug that had already been injected. My son died an hour after he was born.”

U.S.based Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, an international coalition focused on forced abortions, sexual slavery and related problems in China, explained the number of children Uyghurs are allowed to have.  In the suburbs they are allowed to have three, in the city they are only allowed to have two. 

Along with abortion, the camps for these women are undeniably the worst place to be. The women’s ages in these camps can range from teenagers to women in their 50’s. 

Journalist Bitter Winter retrieved reports from China, explaining the strict rules and capacity of the rooms in the camps. “One needs to pass through three entrances to get into the detainees’ living quarters: the first is a security door, the second is a locked iron gate, and the third is a small gate in the iron fence. There are 36 people in each small room with three-tier iron bunk beds surrounding the desks and stools for classes in the middle. Four video cameras are installed in each room and even in the bathrooms to monitor the women.”

This rule is fascist, with the surveillance and oppressive situations that the women are put through. There are many more incidents where women are allegedly becoming deranged from being in cramped cells of several women and being restricted from speaking their native tongue or doing anything that the authoritarian rule will disapprove from. 

“To shower, hundreds of women are herded into one bathing room where they wash themselves without any privacy, guards observing them” said Bitter Winter. 

The continaution of social media spreading must be consistent, as the more people aknowledge this as an ethnic genocide, rather than brushing it to the side as a “problem far away.” Many Uyghurs are using outlets such as YouTube and news to give testimonies, as well as events prepared locally to explain and give a more in depth description of what they or their family members/acquaintances endure under such government regulation. 

The problem is not with religion, as there are many Chinese converts Muslims in China. The problem is that leaders in the Chinese government don’t want Uyghurs Turks to be situated in the Xinjiang region, and anywhere else in China. This is ethnic genocide, and the government is trying to erase the Uyghur culture and people completly. 

Being on the other side of the world, we must first educate ourselves on the Uyghur Turks, then the structure of the Chinese government, and see if we are able to do anything in solidarity locally. The most important thing any university, government and organization can do is acknowledge that this is happening, and do outreach to people who may have or know someone who has the resources to make a change. 

Instantly as humans, we connect to something and pay closer attention if we are able to understand it, if it is able to affect us in any way. This, along with any conflict, should be something we can connect to as humans. It doesn’t matter the amount you put forth to something, it’s the fact that you contributed to that change.