Joint Statement: Do Not Forget the Suffering Uyghur Women!

Taiwan East Turkistan Association

March 8 International Women's Day Statement

March 8, 2023

Do Not Forget the Suffering Uyghur Women!

Call on the United Nations to Revoke P'eng Li-yuan's Title of "UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education"!

Women are targeted in the Chinese government's ongoing genocidal atrocities against Uyghurs. Uyghur women are victims of rampant sexual violence and forced sterilization in Chinese concentration camps and prisons!

While the world celebrates March 8 International Women's Day, please do not forget the many women who have long been coerced and live in fear, and who need our care and concern!

Just as UNESCO conferred the title of "Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education" upon P'eng Li-yuan, wife of Chinese leader Hsi Chin-p'ing, millions of Uyghur women are facing the loss of husbands and fathers, forced birth control via intrauterine devices, and even being forced to share a room and a bed with strange Han men, subjecting them to sexual assault and personal humiliation under state violence by China!

Concentration camp survivor Mihrigul Tursun recently published her memoir in Taiwan, titled *Place of No Return*. In the book, she describes how two Han officials "lived" in her home:

Their appearance turned our home upside down, and I instantly felt like I had become a walking corpse. It felt just like being in prison, with cameras pointed at you around the clock. Although these four walls are my own home, it felt like a prison.

Then, an even more terrifying situation arose: "We are not sleeping in the living room; we are sleeping in the bedroom," they said. So my father had to give up one of the family's only two bedrooms to them, but even so, the two Han public security officers were not satisfied. "We are your closest relatives, and we want to sleep in the same bed with you." One of them wanted to sleep with me and the children, and the other with my parents. When my father heard this, his face turned completely red. …… The final solution they came up with was to sleep all together: my aunt, myself, and the two children slept with one of the Han men. The other Han man went into the other room with my father to sleep in another bed. At the time, about one-tenth of Uyghur families had such Han "relatives" moving in, violating the privacy of these households.

This situation is the current reality of the "Becoming Family" campaign launched by the Chinese Communist Party in 2017, which has affected over a million Uyghur families to date. According to the CCP mouthpiece *Global Times*, by September 2018, 1.1 million Han cadres were "paired" with 1.69 million Uyghurs.

Rushan Abbas, founder of the US NGO Campaign For Uyghurs, indignantly accused: "When Uyghur women are raped in their own beds, where are the feminists?"

Even more absurdly, Chinese President Hsi Chin-p'ing's wife, P'eng Li-yuan, still holds the title of "Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education" conferred by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Abbas stated, "The first lady of a human rights-abusing country does not deserve this title."

Today, as people in Taiwan celebrate Women's Day and present a rose to the women around them, friends and family, we sincerely call upon everyone:

Do not forget the fear and persecution faced by numerous Uyghur women within their own homes!

Demand that the United Nations revoke P'eng Li-yuan's title of "Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education"!

Initiator of the Joint Statement: Taiwan East Turkistan Association

Co-signatories:

Taiwan Association for Human Rights

Covenant Watch

Association for Access, Taipei

New Vitality Independent Living Association, Taipei

Tibet-Taiwan Human Rights Network

Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty

International Tibet Network

Hong Kong Outlanders

Taiwan United Nations Alliance

Chinese Democracy Education Foundation

Asian Citizens' Future Association

Action Shanhachua

Asia Pacific Freedom Women's Association

Yung-Soo

Taiwan Civil Front Association

Awakening Foundation

Environmental Jurists Association

Professor Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation

Taiwan Symbiosis Youth Association

Friends of Tibet, Taiwan

Taiwan Society

Taiwan Teachers' Association

Li Ming-che, Wenshan Community College Project Manager

Taiwan Co-learning Education Promotion Association

Obasan Alliance for Common Folks' Politics

Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Culture Foundation

Hsiao Ching-wen Dance Troupe

Statebuilding Party

鄭南榕基金會 (Cheng Nan-jung Foundation)

Taichung Haomin Culture Association

Taiwan New Vision Association

Taiwan Democratic Sustainable Platform Association

Taiwan Island Sustainable Development Association

Taiwan Sweet Potato Vine Association

Judicial Reform Foundation

Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Policy Association

Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation

 

#Taiwan's Parliament passed a resolution on December 27, 2022, condemning the Chinese atrocities of genocide against Uyghurs, making it the first country in Asia to pass such a resolution.