Gulbahar Haitiwaji, Rozenn Morgat

How I Survived A Chinese 'Re-education' Camp

A Uyghur Woman's Story

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

'Intimate, highly sensory' ★★★★★ - Daily Telegraph 'Indispensable' - Sunday Times 'Harrowing' - New Statesman 'A powerful personal narrative' - Irish Times THE FIRST MEMOIR ABOUT THE 'RE-EDUCATION' CAMPS BY A UYGHUR WOMAN For three years, Gulbahar Haitiwaji disappeared into a secret network of jails. Now, she is the first female Uyghur survivor to give a connected and revealing account of life inside China’s brainwashing ‘re-education’ camps. Her account reads like a modern version of 1984. It tells the story of a woman confronted by an all-powerful state bent on crushing her spirit - and her struggle for freedom and dignity. This rare portrait of China’s gulag is visceral and internationally important. 'An intimate, highly sensory self-portrait... of an educated woman passing through a system that appears at turns cruel, paranoid, capricious and devastatingly effective.' - Daily Telegraph  'Gulbahar's memoir is an indispensable account, which makes vivid the stench of fearful sweat in the cells, the newly built prison’s permanent reek of white paint. It closely corresponds with other witness statements... Most impressive is her psychological honesty.' - Sunday Times

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Canbury Press Ltd
• Seitenzahl: 256
• Erscheinungstermin: 3. Februar 2022
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 227mm x 150mm x 16mm
• Gewicht: 375g
• ISBN-13: 9781912454945
• ISBN-10: 1912454947
• Artikelnr.: 63649559

Autorenporträt

Gulbahar Haitiwaji worked as a petroleum  engineer in Xinjiang, China, before she left with her two daughters, to join her husband Kerim, who had sought asylum in France. She was tricked into returning to China, and vanished into its camps.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface. Rozen Morgan, Le Figaro journalist and co-author, introduces the
story of Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur woman who was tricked into returning
to China and imprisoned in its ethnic 're-education' camps. The
introduction contains an overview of the persecution of the Uyghur minority
in Xinjiang
Table of Contents. Lists the chapters for this first-hand account by a
survivor of China's prison camps, amid the Chinese Communist Party's
apparent genocide of members of the Uyghur minority people in the Xinjiang
province, in north-west China
1. A Family Wedding. The boisterous Uyghur wedding of Gulbahar's daughter,
Gulhumur, sets the scene on the happy days enjoyed by the Haitiwaji family
in exile in France. Gulbahar explains her family's history and story in
their homeland of Xinjiang, while outlining the persecution of the Uyghurs
2. China Calling. A representative at Gulbahar's former employer asks her
to return to China to sign some pension papers. By then Gulbahar had joined
her engineer husband Kerim in France. Despite rising persecution of
Uyghurs, Gulbahar has returned to Xinjiang several times without incident
3. A Police Interview. When she arrives back in Xinjiang, Gulbahar is
questioned and then arrested and grilled by police about whether she
supports Uyghur independence, whether she has any links to the World Uyghur
Congress, and her daughter's appearance at a Uyghur protest rally in Paris
4. Communist Party Glories. Gulbahar, a Uyghur woman who has committed no
crime other than being a Uyghur (Uighur) in Xinjiang, is taken to a prison
camp where she is taught to celebrate the glories of the Chinese Communist
Party. In the cell, the Uyghur language is banned. Only Mandarin is
allowed.
5. Shackled to a Bed. In Cell 202 in a Xinjiang detention centre, Gulbahar
discovers the harsh lessons meted out to Uyghur prisoners in the Chinese
Communist Party's 're-education' gulag. Xinjiang is earmarked for a key
road in Xi Jinping's 'Belt & Road' initiative, also known as China's New
Silk Roads
6. Inside Cell 202. Unshackled, Gulbahar is given her original clothes and
told she will be leaving for a 'school' where she will be formally
're-educated' out of Uyghur culture and shown a new more fulfilling life as
a humble and devoted servant of the Chinese Communist Party
7. ‘School’ with Xi Jinping. At her new 'school' in Baijiantan, Xinjiang,
Gulbahar monotonously recites patriotic songs and slogans aimed at ensuring
Uyghurs obey the Chinese Communist Party. Mentions Tiananmen Square,
communist indoctrination, Chinese patriotic songs
8. Nadira Vanishes. All of a sudden, Gulbahar's cell-mate Nadira, a fellow
Uyghur woman, goes missing: no-one knows what has happened to her. At
night, Gulbuhar hears the screams of other inmates held in the
'reeducation' facility – Muslim persecution in Xinjiang, Uighur
re-education camp, Xi Jinping
9. A Reunion with Hope. Gulbahar is reunited with her two sisters, during a
brief visit to the re-education facility at Baijiantan. She asks for news
of Kerim, Gulhumur and Gulnigar in France. Mentions Uyghur guards, Uighur
genocide, Uighur humans rights abuses, Ürümqi
10. ‘Re-education’ is Working. The endless repetition of songs and slogans
starts to erode Gulbahar's soul, diminishing her ability to keep hold of
their own feelings and mental stability. Gulbahar is proud of her Uyghur
culture, but her own personality and culture are slowing slipping away
11. Losing Body and Mind. After a year's detention, Gulbahar's health
starts to deteriorate along with her mental health. The camp's medical
staff inject her with "a vaccination" which stops the periods of younger
Uyghur women inmates. China has been accused of forcibly sterilising Uyghur
women
12. World Discovers the Camps. The 'relentless clockwork of brainwashing'
at the re-education camp finally succeeds in demoralising Gulbahar, as
China's campaign against Uyghurs is stepped up with authorities collecting
DNA, fingerprints, retinal scans, and blood types of millions of citizens
13. France Discovers Gulbahar. The plight of the Uyghurs becomes better
known around the world. Meanwhile France's foreign ministry becomes 'aware'
of Gulbahar's fate and starts to negotiate with the Chinese authorities for
her release. Mentions Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
14. Moved to a Bigger Camp. Amid protests and diplomacy from France,
Gulbahar - 'Number 9' - is moved to an even bigger camp in Xinjiang, where
she is told she is about to face her trial. Mentions Uyghur protest in
Paris, Uyghur trial, Uighur persecution, Uyghur prison warders
15. ‘No 9. Your Turn!’. Gulbahar is tried in a Kafkaesque hearing at her
prison camp, with a cameraman filming the proceedings for the Chinese
Communist Party. She is sentenced for seven years imprisonment, seemingly
for nothing other than the crime of being a Uyghur woman in Xinjiang
province.
16. Where is Gulbahar? Gulbahar's daughter Gulhumar is interviewed on
France 24 about her mother's fate, drawing the French public's attention to
her incarceration in China. Meanwhile, the Xinjiang Victims Database,
maintained by people of the diaspora, reveals the sheer number of Uyghurs
sucked into China's gulag
17. Letting Myself Die. After more than a year in detention and facing a
meaningless birthday incarcerated in China's desert prisons for Uyghurs,
Gulbahar decides to let herself die. Then she realises, amid the
interrogations, that the Chinese do not have enough evidence to keep her
locked up
18. Battles With Tasqin. Gulbahar undergoes interrogation by a policeman
called Tasqin. Relentlessly, he tries to get Gulbahar to confess her
'crimes'. Mentions Karamay, Uighur diaspora, Chinese jails, Uighur
re-education, Rebiya Kadeer, Uyghur leader, Uyghur terrorism
19. Freedom? Still locked up in the prison in Xinjiang, Gulbahar is -
amazingly - told she can go free by Tasqin. She is unaware of the
diplomatic pressure the French government is exerting on China with the aim
of securing her release. Mentions Uyghur minority, Uighurs imprisoned,
Uyghur imprisonment
20. Fruit and Mint Tea. Freed from the re-education camp system where she
has been kept by the Chinese authorities for the past two years, Gulbahar
is transferred to an apartment block in Karamay, Xinjiang. There she is
guarded by eleven Chinese police officers. Her police guards encourage her
to eat.
21. Phoning Home. Under house arrest, Gulbahar is allowed to phone home to
her family in France, whose diplomats have been urging China to allow her
to return to her family. Some of Gulbahar's guards are Uyghurs. Don't they
realise that the Chinese want to wipe the Uyghurs off the face of the
earth?
22. Monitored All Day. The Chinese secret police encourage Gulbahar to bulk
up her camp-ravaged body by eating. She is told that she cannot skip meals.
She is also told to urge her family to remove all negative mentions of
China's mistreatment of the Uyghurs from social media posts
23. Back in Karamay. Accompanied by her secret police minders, Gulbahar is
taken to a shopping mall where she is allowed to purchase new clothes to
improve her appearance. Mentions Uyghur city, Kashgar, Tian Shan mountains,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Silk Road, Taklamakan Desert, Sinicisation
24. Cooking for the Secret Police. As she continues her bizarre apartment
life, Gulbahar feeds her secret police monitors. After two years in the
re-education camps, she begins to rediscover the momentum of ordinary life,
as a free Uyghur. She dreams that one day she will be reunited with her
family.
25. The Truth is Voiceless. Gulbahar muses how Uyghurs in Xinjiang are
forbidden from telling their story. They must remain mute to the outside
world while they undergo the most vicious persecution by the Hans Chinese
authorities. Gulbahar is allowed to meet her sisters and mother
26. Closing My File. When she returns to the apartment in Karamay, in the
swelling heat of a Xinjiang summer, her house arrest is lifted and she is
moved to a hotel room. At a short hearing, a judge overturns the seven-year
prison sentence she received earlier and pronounces that she is innocent
27. Landing. On 21st August 2019, after more than two years lost in China's
re-education camp system, Gulbahar Haitiwaji flies home to her family in
France. Mentions French foreign policy, Uyghur internment, Uighurs interned
in Xinjiang, Uyghur minority, Uyghur genocide biography, Amnesty
Afterword by Rozenn Morgat. Gulbahar is still haunted by her experiences as
a persecuted Uyghur, Morgat writes. 'Poor sleep from short, restless nights
keeps her in a state of constant, nagging fatigue. Her vision has also
deteriorated badly and she has violent headaches
Acknowledgements. Rozenn Morgan thanks the many people who made it possible
to tell Gulbahar's extraordinary story. Mentions Editions des Equateurs,
Jeanne Pham Tran, Gulhumar Haitiwaji